Three
by jimra
Summary: Ranma is cursed at thirteen and then the strange stuff starts happening. Definite AU.
1. Chapter 1

Three

A Ranma ½ fanfic by jimra

All Ranma ½ characters, places, and things in general are the property of Takahashi Rumiko-sama. All hail the great Takahashi!

Chapter One

--

Splash

"Oh, too bad. You fall in Nyannichuan, Spring of Drown Girl. There, very tragic story of young girl what drown there one thousand five hundred year ago. Is very, very tragic story, Mr. Customer."

--

A young, red-haired girl sat in a small pool, near the edge, with a very dazed look on her face. In fact, since falling into the spring, the child hadn't made a move or sound. That was a sharp contrast to the actual scene taking place around her, and a strange scene it was.

A large panda, still dripping from its own dunking, was chasing a fat Chinese man wearing a military uniform around the girl's spring. The Chinese man, who was moving at a surprising speed for his bulk, was shouting at the panda, though the panda didn't seem to care.

"Please, sir!" pleaded the man. "Is very bad you kill Guide! I show you how change back!"

Either the panda wasn't listening, or he didn't believe the Guide, because the chase didn't end. In fact, the panda seemed to grow faster at the fat man's yammering. Screaming, the strange chase left the girl and pool behind, and the two moved into the surrounding mountains. Through all of this, the girl didn't move.

--

Night was falling on the small village of warrior women when a strange display wove its way into their peaceful evening. Women of exotic hair color and more exotic weaponry gaped openly at the Jusenkyo Guide, who was, at that moment, being chased by a very large panda. The chase expanded in scope once the Amazons shook free of their shock, and soon a great number of the warriors had entered the race. After all, even if they couldn't save the unfortunate Guide, they might be able to get a nice new panda rug for one of their houses.

Just as the group approached the village square, a small creature that seemed to be made entirely of wrinkles leapt at the panda. The creature deftly smacked its five-foot staff onto the back of the animal's skull and brought the chase, at last, to an end. Several of the warriors who had been trying to get themselves a new rug began to unsheathe their knives in anticipation of their prize.

Unfortunately for all those who like panda rugs, the Guide was not the kind of man to allow a customer of Jusenkyo to be slaughtered while under his care.

"Wait!" yelled the fat man in the Jusendo dialect of Mandarin Chinese. "He was just angry because of his curse!" Turning to the withered old creature who had ended the chase, he said, "Honored Elder, please do not have him killed. You know how Jusenkyo affects those who fall into its springs."

After a moment, the wrinkled one replied in a gravelly voice, "Of course, Guide."

Turning to the other warriors, she said, "I'm afraid that this one is human. Let us put him into one of the guesthouses and give him some hot water. Perhaps he will calm down if he awakens human."

Though there were a few grumbles from the crowd of Amazons, everyone knew not to argue with an Elder. Three women quickly complied with the ancient Elder's request, and Saotome Genma became a man once more.

--

While the chase was concluding in the village, the girl still sat in the waters of the Nyannichuan. Her eyes had been glazed since she surfaced, and she still hadn't moved a muscle. The rays of the setting sun caught her copper-red hair and pale skin in a pristine beauty, a beauty that a nearby boy couldn't help but notice…and stare.

The boy, whose eyes had become as large as saucers, watched the beautiful creature from the cover of a small bush. He wore a yellow and black bandana in his unruly black hair and was carrying a huge, travel-stained backpack with a red, bamboo umbrella strapped to the top.

After about ten minutes of staring, the boy finally snapped himself out of his stupor. 'The girl hasn't moved,' he thought. 'I should try to help her.'

Keeping his gaze solidly on the girl, the boy crept forward slowly.

"Miss?" he said in a tentative voice. "Are you alright?"

The girl didn't move, and the boy started to worry.

"Please, Miss. Say something." Still, the girl made no move or sound.

The bandana-clad boy began to walk faster, worrying more with every step. When he was standing right behind her, he leaned forward to look at her face. He gasped; his worry increased ten fold when he saw the vacant, glazed look in her beautiful, but stormy, grey-blue eyes. He also noted that her hands were very wrinkled, as though she had been sitting in the water for a long time.

'I should get her out of the water,' he thought, and then he put thought to action. Gently slipping a hand under each of the red head's arms, he easily lifted the small girl from the water and set her on the bank, a little ways from the spring. After checking to be sure she was breathing, the boy stretched her out on the ground. Unfortunately for him, the girl's once-white gi chose that moment to fall open, displaying her considerable assets to the world. The boy reacted to his sight in a predictably Japanese way: he had a nosebleed and fainted.

--

Saotome Ranma, all of thirteen years old, sat in a small crevasse, shivering with his face streaked with tearstains. His opponent had hurt him badly, and the barren wasteland held few places to hide. The boy was naked, with cuts and scrapes covering his bruised body. Not only was there the insane girl, but the Cat was out there too. Of course, the Cat hadn't differentiated between him and the naked redhead, but Ranma didn't take much solace in that.

He'd first found himself in the twilight of this place when the panda his father had become knocked him into the spring. When the young martial artist hit the water, he suddenly found himself lying, naked, on the cracked ground of this place.

Even before he had managed to pull himself off of the ground, the girl had attacked. Her red hair, pulled into a pigtail identical to his, streamed behind her as her fist slammed into the ground where his head had been only a moment before, and another crater formed in the cracked earth as he threw himself away from the girl's attack.

The fight that ensued had been all consuming. The girl was too good for him to hold back, so he had to ignore his usual prohibition against fighting girls. She proved to be even faster than Ranma, striking with blinding speed, then quickly retreating to avoid his own strikes. Unbelievably, the girl even displayed an equivocal level of skill in the Saotome-style Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu. Not a word was said as the young man fought for his life against an opponent he had never seen before, and worst of all, she seemed to be winning, ever so slowly. Even though what strikes he could land on the crazed redhead seemed to affect her more than those she landed on him, she dodged the majority of his attacks, and her superior speed allowed more of her attacks to connect.

That was when the two combatants heard the blood-curdling war cry of the beast, and a moment later, the Cat attacked. Ranma shivered at the memory of the giant black creature. It had slammed into him from behind, knocking him from his feet. The mauling he received from the beast was the cause of most of his injuries, and the girl just smiled and backed off during the attack.

However, when Ranma slipped briefly into unconsciousness, the Cat must have turned on the girl, because when he came to, he heard the girl screaming. The creature had pounced on her and was doing much the same thing it had done to Ranma only a few moments before.

Knowing that he was no match for the beast and having no love of the insane redhead, Ranma performed the Saotome Final Attack to gain a little breathing room; much as he loathed what he considered a cowardly maneuver, sometimes it was necessary.

Pulling himself from his reverie, Ranma assessed his actual condition. He had bruises covering most of his body from the fight with the girl and probably near a thousand cuts and scrapes from the mauling. However, he was not seriously bleeding, and none of his bones were broken. In fact, he felt remarkably well for all he had gone through. 'Guess I'm still healing fast,' he thought with a slight grin. The boy quickly rubbed his face to remove the evidence that he'd been crying.

After a moment more of catching his breath and collecting his thoughts, Ranma was ready to return to the battle. Just as he stood, he felt a tap on his shoulder. Ranma jumped two meters into the air and came back down in a combat stance; the girl stood before him once more. However, after a tense moment, he relaxed. The girl sagged against the wall of the crevasse bonelessly, looking worse off than Ranma did. She looked up at him for a moment and burst into tears.

Ranma, never one to see a girl cry, even one who had tried, and maybe still was trying, to kill him, spoke in a flustered tone. "D—don't cry."

The girl looked up for a moment, hope in her eyes, and then, she jumped up and threw her arms around Ranma's neck. To say that the boy was surprised would be an understatement as he was borne to the ground, the redhead on top of him. He was acutely aware that there was now a crying, naked, and highly attractive girl lying on top of his prone form, but despite his discomfort, he slipped his arms around the girl's back, trying to soothe her.

"I—it's all right now," he said. "The C—C—Cat is gone."

The girl only cried harder as the young man held her, her grip around his neck tightening and her face pressing harder against his chest; Ranma stroked her hair and back, but the action only seemed to make the girl more upset as she sobbed. He could feel the warm wetness of her tears falling onto his skin, and after a short time, the young martial artist relaxed, rocking the red-haired girl as she poured out her pain.

Ranma figured that about thirty minutes passed as he tried to calm the girl when his efforts finally succeeded, the girl's sobbing quieting. She lay against him in silence for a short time, seeming to drink in comfort from his arms around her. After another fifteen minutes or so, the girl pulled herself from his embrace and sat next to him, her back against the rough stone wall of the crevice. She sighed deeply, and Ranma was shocked to see what looked like defeat and depression in her stormy, blue-grey eyes.

Seating himself close and sliding an arm around his former enemy's shoulders, Ranma quietly asked, "Who are you?"

She looked at him quizzically for a moment before bursting out laughing. Though Ranma was a bit miffed at being laughed at by the girl he'd just spent over half an hour comforting, he couldn't help but find the sound melodious. Even if she had been trying to kill him, he couldn't help but feel like her laughter, after all that had happened since he'd arrived in this strange place of twilight and death, was one of the most marvelous things he'd ever heard. Something he wanted to, and should, hear more often.

After a moment, the girl calmed herself and looked at him strangely, blinking her eyes quizzically. "You really don't know, do you?" she said, her voice sounding almost incredulous. "I'm you! Or, at least, I'm your feminine side."

To say Ranma was shocked would be a vast understatement, and the boy removed his arm from around her shoulders as he drew back from her. Immediately, the arrogance and chauvinism instilled by his father kicked in, even overwhelming his earlier pleasure at hearing her laughter, and he almost shouted his protest at her statement, his voice cracking in denial. "I ain't got no feminine side! Oyaji said he'd make me a man among men, and that's what I am!"

"Oh please," the girl retorted, slightly annoyed. "If nothing else, I'm living proof that it exists! And I'm not too happy about being completely suppressed by that idiot of a father we have!"

Seeing the girl begin to get angry, Ranma actually managed to avoid the old 'Saotome foot in mouth' syndrome, but only by saying nothing. However, his eyes stayed hard, almost bitter, at the girl's pronouncement. If his father was to be believed, his feminine side made him weak, and he couldn't be weak, not if he was to continue the Saotome-style Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu. The redhead must have decided to ignore his eyes because her face immediately softened once he stopped arguing.

"That's better," said the girl with a slight smile. After a moment, though, she became serious once more, her eyes hardening and a tiny, cute frown curling at the corners of her lips. "I guess I should tell you what is going on, and why I was attacking you."

"Yeah," said Ranma in a slightly sullen voice, still a bit upset at having a feminine side at all. "That would be a good start."

"Well," the girl began, "when a person falls in a spring of Jusenkyo, the part of them that reflects the spring is awakened. A battle for dominance ensues, and which ever wins has nominal control over the body after that."

"Wait a sec'!" said Ranma, anger and shock seeping into his voice. "You were trying to take over my body?!"

"Damn it," replied the girl hotly, her eyes narrowing in annoyance and anger. "I already told you! I am you! Will you just listen to me?!"

Both youths took a moment to cool down after their outbursts, not looking at each other as they took deep, calming breaths, and then the girl continued. "As I was saying," she said in a much calmer voice. "Normally the battle is fought on a subconscious level in an instant, but this one is very different."

The girl began to sound frightened again, so Ranma put an arm around her shoulders once more, hoping he could avoid another round of crying. She looked up at him, a bit shocked at his action, but all the response she received was a nod to continue. Taking a deep breath, she did so, her voice a bit less confident but bit stronger.

"Most people aren't even aware that the battle takes place, but I'm almost certain that which ever of us gets final dominance will remember. Also, there's the Cat. I don't even want to think about what would happen if it managed to win!" As she said that last, her voice lost the extra strength Ranma-kun's gesture had lent her, and her tone became weak and frightened once again.

Ranma-kun and Ranma-chan both shuddered at that thought, Ranma-kun tightened his arm around her shoulders to lend a bit more comfort to his sister personality, and then they looked at each other strangely. Finally, Ranma-kun broke the awkward moment.

"Is there any way we could…ya know…not fight?" he asked his girl half. "I just know I don't wanna to fight you any more."

Ranma-chan slipped her arm around her boy side and rested her head on his shoulder, her beautiful, bright smile almost hidden from his view. "I don't want to fight you anymore, either."

Both sighed as Ranma-kun pulled the girl into a warm hug. When they finally returned to their original sitting positions, Ranma-kun began to look puzzled. The masculine side of Ranma narrowed his eyes in deep thought, and after a moment he said, "Wait a sec'. If you're me, how do ya know all this stuff about Jusenkyo an' all?"

Ranma-chan thought for a bit before replying, and she sighed before she spoke. "When the spring separated our personalities, the spirit of the Nyannichuan merged with me to give me form. I was so suppressed and weak that the spirit had to do it, but it will leave once the battle is done. So at the moment, I guess I've got pretty much every bit of knowledge there is about Jusenkyo."

After her explanation, both personalities sat in quiet contemplation for some time, but eventually Ranma-chan broke the silence. "I think that, maybe, we should work together to fight the Cat."

"Hmm…yeah!" replied Ranma-kun as he began to show some excitement. Anything to do with fighting tended to cheer up the martial personality, especially if it involved defeating a hated enemy. "You're as skilled as I am, and faster."

His female side smiled at the complement and her brother personality's excitement. Since Ranma was so martial arts centered, she felt excited as well, even if it wasn't very feminine. 'Oh well,' she thought. 'Being a boy's feminine side, especially someone like Ranma, was bound to make me a tomboy.' Out loud she said, "Uh huh, and you're stronger. We might be able to get him!"

Smiling brightly, the two personalities began to lay plans for the Cat's ultimate demise, their voices carrying more happiness than either had felt in a long, long time.

--

Night passed slowly in Jusendo, but all was quiet. In the cursed training ground of Jusenkyo, a black-haired boy wearing a bandana lay unconscious next to a redhead. The redhead's eyes were open, though vacant, and by all appearances, she was in a coma. A little ways from the accursed springs, in a village of the Joketsuzoku Amazons, a fat man slept soundly in a guesthouse while an ancient old woman reviewed some of the lore of her village by candle light. And in another guesthouse, the Jusenkyo Guide slept deeply after the ordeal of the previous day. Finally, a little ways from Jusenkyo in the opposite direction from the Nyuucheizu village, an encampment of soldiers with strangely animalistic features bedded down for the night.

--

Still smiling happily, Ranma-kun and Ranma-chan finally finished their battle plan against the beast, each nearly overflowing with excitement and eagerness to defeat the beast that had plagued them for so long. Just as the two were rising from the rocky crevasse to begin their hunt and turn the tables on the former hunter, Ranma-kun asked, "What are we gonna do after we kill that thing?"

Ranma-chan looked at her male side and shrugged, a blank look on her face. "Let's just concentrate on killing it for now. We can figure something out about us afterward."

After Ranma-kun nodded, the two set off, their direction chosen at random. The wasteland battlefield was permanently shrouded in twilight, and there was no vegetation to cover the coppery clay and multicolored rocks of the ground. Crevasses, like the one from which the two personalities had emerged, dotted the landscape, and mesas and boulders jutted toward the dark sky where black clouds raced from horizon to horizon.

Their battle plan was simple: find the Cat and make certain it couldn't attack both of them at once. The one who was being attacked would concentrate on dodging while the other would attack the creature, and as it became angry with the attacker, the two personalities would switch jobs. Certainly a simple plan, but simple was good. Both remembered their training in martial strategy, and they knew that any real plan wouldn't last beyond the first punch thrown. Besides, a simple plan could give direction, and that was what they would really need in their battle with the nightmare beast. However, they first had to find the creature, and there was really no way to do that than simply looking.

Searching this kind of terrain was tiring work, and soon the two dropped into one of the many crevasses that dotted the landscape to rest a bit. After all, it wouldn't do to enter into battle exhausted, and they certainly would be exhausted if they found the Cat after a few hours of leaping across cracks in the earth and climbing spires of stone to get a better look at the terrain.

As they sat on the hard, cool ground, Ranma-kun was surprised when Ranma-chan slipped an arm around him and laid her head on his shoulder. After their last talk, the action didn't fluster him, and it only took a moment before he placed his arm around her shoulders. They sat like that, both knowing that neither was truly confident in their plan; both knowing that they would need each other in the coming battle. A companionable silence was all that could be heard from the crevasse as the two personalities rested.

After nearly a quarter hour had passed, the two decided to resume their search, and they stood, a brief sigh the only sound escaping either's lips. Unfortunately for them, it seemed that the beast had found them before they could find it, and the daemonic, black form of the Cat slammed into Ranma-kun from behind once again.

Crying out in pain, Ranma-kun was slammed to the ground underneath the crushing weight of the creature, its claws raking lines of fire across his unprotected back. Squeezing his eyes shut against the pain and fear, he prepared himself for the mauling he was certain would be coming.

--

Ranma-chan saw her brother personality go down under the Cat's vicious pounce, and she reacted instantly. Leaping high into the air, she came down with a hard drop kick to the creature's lower spine. She smirked as the creature yowled in pain, but that was rapidly wiped from her face as the Cat, moving faster than she had thought possible, turned and swiped her out of the air.

'Owww,' was the only thought in her mind as she felt the creature's claws dig into her flesh leaving four parallel lines of fire across her breasts and stomach, but that was just the beginning of her pain. She crashed into one of the many stone pylons that dotted the mental landscape with enough force to break through and slam into the ground, sliding a good five meters. Her mind reeling from the many bruises and cuts inflicted upon her naked body by this blunt trauma, she was barely able to open her eyes in time to see the Cat flying through the air toward her. Involuntarily, Ranma-chan whimpered, and her eyes squeezed shut, a few tears of pain and fear managing to squeeze through and run down her dust covered cheeks.

The Cat landed on the girl personality with enough force to knock the wind out of her, and its claws and teeth tore at her skin almost before the nightmarish creature finished its landing, but the mauling was thankfully short. Just as the beast raised a clawed paw to open her throat, Ranma-kun was there. He hit the cat with a rapid series of side kicks, spin kicks, and roundhouses, knocking the creature away.

Ranma-chan stood unsteadily, bleeding from several new wounds and horribly sore from the battering she'd just endured, and the sibling personalities stood to face their mutual enemy. The black beast crouched low to face the two, seeming to know that now its prey had decided to work together. Remembering their battle plan, Ranma-chan began to separate from her boy side, circling right. Ranma-kun circled left, and they quickly moved to opposite sides of the creature.

Yowling with rage, the creature moved with lightning speed to attack the boy, but Ranma-chan immediately attacked the creature's exposed back with a punch and strike combination. While there was no perceptible damage, the creature howled and turned, and sticking to the plan, Ranma-kun was there, attacking its back once again. This time he used a very forceful and probably very painful knee to the groin combined with an elbow to the base of its tail.

Pain, frustration, and bloodlust were apparent in the Cat's eyes as it spun between the sibling personalities for a good ten minutes, but each time it turned a new attack struck its hindquarters sending another jolt of pain to its primitive, instinct-controlled mind.

The boy and girl sides of Ranma could only smile evilly as their plan succeeded, but their triumphant looks were short lived. When the Cat turned to Ranma-chan once again, the creature lashed out with its hind paws, catching her boy side in the chest and sending him sprawling on the ground, sliding into a growing pile of loose earth as he skidded to a halt. Ranma-chan could only stare in shock, faltering in her dodging for an instant as her brother personality created another long crater in the ground, and that was all the Cat needed. With lightning speed, the creature of nightmare pounced on the red-haired girl before she could raise an adequate defense from her lapse, and very soon, her screams of pain and fear echoed over the mindscape.

--

The Cat's hind paw had caught Ranma-kun full in the chest leaving four long, deep lacerations in his chest, but the pain of those wounds didn't enter his mind. That was entirely occupied with the screams of his girl side; the pain she felt consumed him entirely.

Picking himself up from the ground and ignoring the pain every movement caused in his battered and beaten body, Ranma-kun's battle aura sprang to life like a blue flame around his form. Panic and desperation pushed him beyond any speed or strength he had ever known, and he charged toward the creature mauling his sister personality, a cry of inhuman rage escaping his lips.

Hearing the boy, the cat spun to face him, but the beast was unprepared for the visage of a blue human torch, ki blazing around the masculine personality. Ranma-kun, showing just how far a person can be pushed when faced with the death of a loved one, attacked the cat head on with everything he had. He could vaguely feel the Cat's claws tearing his flesh, but at the time, he was more interested in forcing his hand deeper into the Cat's eye, feeling pleasure at its pained cries.

The battle was ferocious and extremely fast paced as Ranma threw everything he had at the black beast of darkest dreams, but the creature gave as good as it got. Where Ranma-kun managed to remove one of the creature's eyes and break one of its forelegs, he lost one of his own eyes and was bleeding badly from a slash down his side.

Finally, Ranma-kun leapt into the air and came down with a hammer fist on the creature's head, his ki pulsing brightly as the blow landed. The yowl of pain echoed several times, and the Cat finally turned away. Quickly as it could manage with its broken leg, the creature limped away. The male side of Ranma's personality would have followed, but the adrenaline had run out. Suddenly feeling the pain of all his injuries, the pigtailed boy's aura winked out, and he collapsed bonelessly to the ground, barely breathing.

--

Ranma-chan watched in awe as her brother personality attacked. She would have tried to help him, but she had already found that she couldn't even stand after her mauling. She could feel her blood oozing out of the innumerable cuts all over her badly beaten body, but her pain paled beside her amazement at Ranma-kun's vicious attack on the Cat. She watched her boy side fight the creature, praying to all the kami for his victory. His strength and speed were incredible, but she understood, perhaps due to being merged with the spirit of the Nyannichuan, that he was unconsciously using his ki and even his lifeforce to enhance his already adrenaline-filled body well beyond the normal limits of his fighting ability. He was pushing his body well past its breaking point, and she could almost see the ki working just as hard to hold his form together as it was enhancing his fighting prowess.

Finally, with a flying double-hammer fist to the beast's skull, the battle ended. Ranma-chan saw the creature move with surprising alacrity from the field of battle, but she turned back when her brother personality didn't follow.

'Oh, kami-sama no!' she thought when she saw Ranma-kun lying, unmoving, on the ground. Painfully, Ranma-chan pushed herself up with her arms and crawled, dragging her lower body along the ground, to her brother personality's side and shook him gently.

"Oniisan," she said, her voice choked with tears. "You have to pull through this. We can't both die. If we do, that thing will have dominance! We can't let that happen!"

Ranma-kun's eyes slowly opened, and he stared at her through the haze of blood loss. "What do you mean?" he asked slowly, finding it hard to form words with his oxygen-deprived brain. "You'll live."

"No!" she sobbed, leaning over to hug him. "I won't live. I'm bleeding internally, so you have to live!"

After her last statement, her battle aura flared green and she collapsed on his chest, her sobs so loud that they echoed. Ranma-kun's eyes widened and fresh adrenaline cleared the fog from his mind when he saw her aura begin to gutter, like a candle about to die, and on pure instinct, he flared his own blue ki to shore up her life. It was then that something he hadn't anticipated happened. The ki of the two personalities flowed into one another, mixing and combining in a way that shouldn't have happened. Ranma-chan opened her eyes and stared in wonder at what was happening, and an incredible peace settled over the sibling personalities.

Ranma-kun sat up and looked into his girl side's eyes, and she stared back, each drowning in the blue-grey pools the other possessed. The light of their auras became blinding as they moved forward, and they kissed, lost in the brightness of aquamarine light.

--

In the valley of Jusenkyo, the form of a young girl with red hair suddenly flared with an aquamarine aura that lit the night sky. The nearest pool shined brightly with the same aura that obscured the redhead, like a pillar of light connecting earth to heaven, and the light illuminated Jusenkyo like a bonfire. After a few moments, the light of the pool guttered and died, but the girl's aura burned brighter. The blinding blaze of ki obscured the form of the girl for a few minutes more before dying back down, and all was as it had been.

--

The form of Ranma stood in the center of a massive aquamarine aura on the cracked plain, eyes burning with blinding light. He, as he was for the moment, smiled, and a single thought crossed his mind: 'I guess we were always meant to be just one person.'

Ranma was fully healed after his ordeal, and as such, he set out. The Cat could not be far, and it was the last contender for control of this mind. One thing was certain in this new Ranma's thoughts: the creature would fail. Where once three personalities inhabited the mind of the human known as Ranma, only one would remain, and the combination of Ranma-kun and Ranma-chan wasn't going to allow the Cat to join with him.

Following the blood trail, Ranma quickly caught up with the creature of nightmare. Ranma leapt at it with speed he could have scarcely imagined before the two halves of his personality had combined, and the Cat, for the first time in its eight-year life, felt fear.

The battle was short and decisive. Ki enhanced punches and kicks broke the creature's bones, and the purity of purpose that the new Ranma felt removed any hesitation or fear from his attacks. It was a short five minutes before the Cat lay, mewling in terror and pain, at his feet. However, for all the pain and terror the creature had caused, Ranma couldn't feel even the slightest amount of sympathy or pity for the daemonic beast.

In the end, Ranma decided to end the miserable creature's existence mercifully; even if he felt no sorrow for the beast, he still believed in a clean, quick death. Leaping a few meters away, he drew back his hands. Since his personalities had combined, Ranma had gained a new perspective on life, and this new balance of his yin and yang allowed him to understand ki to a far greater degree than he once had. So now, he directed his ki into a small sphere between his hands. A moment later, he thrust his hands forward to release his attack:

"Mouko Takabisha!" he cried as the ki blast left his hands. 'Fitting that I call it 'Pride of the Fierce Tiger',' he thought, smirking at his own play on words as the bright aquamarine sphere of ki shot toward the black beast. The Cat mewed pitifully once more before the ball of ki slammed into its prone form. A bright flash of light obscured all vision, and when it faded, the Cat was gone, replaced by a five-meter deep crater.

"YES!!" Ranma yelled, hands raised to the sky and tears of joy obscuring his vision. "I finally defeated the Nekoken! It's finally over!"

With that, the world faded from the new Ranma's view, and the darkness of natural sleep poured over the martial artist's mind.

--

Author's Notes (2/21/4)

This little rewrite came from my wish to continue this story. It's been long enough since I've written on it that I needed to at least reread what I'd written, so what better time to do a pretty sizeable rewrite. Besides, I now have a pre-reader for this story, and I bet Poly would like to start at the beginning. Later.

New Note (2/25/8)

Damn, it's been a while. This rewrite doesn't change much, but it confirms my wish to continue this story. I transferred its original intent to another story that could better express what I wanted, but the concept of this story is still something I want to expound on. It's too bad Poly dropped off the map; she was the original reason I wanted to keep this one alive. I know it's been forever since I posted a new chapter, and I know that most people want more Negawarrior, but the writer's block seems to have allowed me to update this one. I hope it's worth everyone's time. Later.


	2. Chapter 2

Dawn slowly pushed its way into Jusendo with a slight brightening of the sky and the gentle disappearance of stars

Three

A Ranma ½ Fanfic by jimra

All Ranma ½ characters, places, and things in general are the property of Takahashi Rumiko-sama. All hail the great Takahashi!

Chapter Two

--

Dawn slowly pushed its way into Jusendo with a slight brightening of the sky and the gentle disappearance of stars. In the Nyuucheizu village of the Joketsuzoku, a large, bald man woke slowly in one of the guesthouses. While the man seemed to have a great deal of blubber over his form, the thin layer of fat that was actually there hid strong, corded muscles. The image of a fat, weak old man was intentional, a deception that made many of his opponents underestimate him, much to their dismay. This type of lie was a prime tenant of his school of martial arts, the Musabetsu, or Anything Goes. As his eyes flickered open and became accustom to the light, memories of the previous day began to filter into his consciousness.

'We finally made it to Jusenkyo,' Genma thought, relaxing into the comfortable bed where he was lying. A smile came to his lips as he thought of the day before. 'We were sparing, and then I got knocked into a spring. The boy really has gotten much better lately.'

With that last thought, the bald man sat bolt upright in the small bed, the smile vanishing as though it were never there. 'Where's the boy?' he thought franticly, whipping his head from side to side, searching for his son. The elder Saotome didn't recognize the house, and Ranma was nowhere in sight.

Standing, Genma found a Chinese tunic and pants laid out on a nearby chair, and for the first time he noticed that he was naked. With no one else around, he had no reason to be embarrassed, but he couldn't go searching for his son wearing nothing, so he quickly dressed in the orange tunic and black pants and moved to leave the house. Just as he reached the door, it opened to reveal a small, wrinkled creature perched on a two-meter staff. The strange thing's white hair, twice as long as the creature itself was tall, still swayed from its arrival, and it blinked its large eyes at the Japanese martial artist. Genma, shocked at the appearance of the creature, stumbled back, barely able to avoid falling on his backside.

"Good, you're awake." The creature had a gravelly voice that sent shivers down Genma's spine, but its Japanese was perfect, if slightly accented. "Perhaps now we can get some answers."

"Wh—what do you want to know?" asked Genma, uncertain and still a bit fearful of this strange creature. "Where am I? And who are you?"

The desiccated one chuckled and said, "I suppose I can tell you that before I ask my questions. You are in the Nyuucheizu village of the Joketsuzoku Amazons, and I am one of its Elders, Cologne. You were chasing the Jusenkyo Guide, and I was forced to stop that disruption to the village. We would like to know why you were trying to kill the Guide."

With that last, Cologne stopped speaking and stared at Genma. As for the elder Saotome, much of this was quite a shock, and he stood in deep contemplation for some time, oblivious to Cologne's increasingly annoyed expression.

'I am in the village of the legendary Joketsuzoku?' Genma thought. 'This would be a wonderful place to learn new techniques and strengthen the Saotome Ryu. The amazons' fighting techniques are considered some of the most powerful in the world…even if they are only women.'

Genma stood silently, staring out into space, for several minutes before Cologne's obvious impatience finally got the best of her. "Speak, male!" she said, a bit coldly. "I haven't got all day!"

Shaken from his reverie, Genma said, "I am Saotome Genma of the Saotome-style Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu. The last thing I remember before waking here was falling into a spring at Jusenkyo."

"Hmm," replied Cologne. "Then you don't remember your curse? That is interesting."

"My curse?" asked Genma, slightly shocked and not a little bit worried.

"Yes, didn't you know?"

Genma shook his head mutely. At that, Cologne bopped him on his head with her staff, her expression moving from annoyed to incredulous. "Foolish man," she said, her tone matching her expression with a good dose of condescension added in. "You went to Jusenkyo without knowing about the curses?"

Once again, Genma could only reply with body language; this time it was a nod. To this, Cologne could only sigh, shaking her head at the thoughtless actions of males. Suddenly, Genma gasped, his expression going from shocked surprise to extreme worry bordering on panic. "My son! Do you know where he is?"

"Your son?" Cologne raised an eyebrow. "No one came here except you and the Guide…who should have warned you about the curse, idiot."

Once she said that, obviously ignoring the 'idiot' comment, Genma immediately went for the door, walking around the ancient Joketsuzoku Matriarch. As he tried to pass, Cologne dropped from her perch and blocked his way with her staff. "Where are you going?" she asked, her expression once more annoyed with what she obviously considered to be a very impetuous male before her.

"I must find my son," he replied, trying to duck under the old Amazon's staff. "He must still be at Jusenkyo."

"Wait a moment, you idiot," said Cologne, without any real malice as she bopped him on the head with the gnarled staff once again. "I will send an escort with you. The Musk go to Jusenkyo quite often, and you are in no shape to face any such as them alone."

Ignoring the hit, Genma turned and bowed his gratitude to Cologne before the ancient one left to gather a few warriors, the elder Saotome following her motion with his eyes alone.

--

Sunrise had finally cleared the mountains around Jusendo when the red-haired girl who was Saotome Ranma finally woke from her trance. She found herself lying on the ground near the Nyannichuan, stiff, sore, and feeling a chill that reached her bones. She shivered as the cool morning breeze blew across her half open gi, and she pulled the damp garment closer around her, shielding her sensitive breasts from the chill wind. Standing and stretching, she seemed totally at ease with her current, female form…at least, other than the fact that she was cold. With a start, she suddenly realized that she was standing next to a boy. She looked over his unconscious form, taking in the black and yellow bandana, yellow shirt, and black pants laced from ankle to knee while she unconsciously finished straightening her gi.

'What is Ryoga doing here?' she thought to herself. 'He was a really good friend in Junior High…even if there was that silly bread feud…but what on earth is he doing in China? And especially Jusenkyo!'

Ranma took a moment to scan the area, and seeing a small hut, she trotted away from the Nyannichuan and her friend. The cursed springs to her left caused her no concern, and her bare feet, used to walking on hard ground, easily carried her across the sparsely vegetated soil between the Spring of Drown Girl and the thatch-roofed cottage.

The cottage's walls were built of obviously local stone, and the thatched roof seemed to be in good repair, though Ranma really wasn't a good judge of thatching. A short chimney of the same material as the walls jutted from the thickly matted straw, but no smoke curled from it to show evidence of a warm fire burning within the hut against the chill morning. Outside and to the left of the single door, a small garden, still brown this early in spring, sat untended, its plants waiting for the sun to warm the earth and a hand to turn the soil. The single window to the right of the door was small, and the opening showed only darkness. However, as Ranma got closer, she saw that the darkness was not the interior of the hut, but instead, there was something blocking her view.

Upon arrival at the entrance, Ranma knocked several times, her small fist rapping loudly on the sturdy, wooden door. When no one answered on the third knock, she decided that it was deserted and reached for the small, iron handle. The door opened easily, and Ranma peered into the musty darkness within.

The interior of the hut was cozy, if a little cramped, but the redhead had expected as much by looking at the outside of the small cottage. There was a small bed and a kitchen area, but the cast iron stove and brick fireplace didn't look like they had been used in several days. There were dry herbs hanging in the single window, probably what little was left from last year's harvest of the tiny garden near the entrance, and a few somewhat crude chairs were set around the small, roughly built table. The floor, rather than being dirt as Ranma expected, was covered by neatly-placed planks, and while they weren't all the exact same width, it lent a more civilized air to an otherwise medieval-looking cottage. All in all, for a hut in the middle of nowhere, it was remarkably clean and nice. Obviously, someone did live here, and the small redhead could only hope that they wouldn't mind her borrowing a little food, as she was ravenously hungry, and using the stove to cook it.

With that thought, Ranma quickly gathered some wood from the open-faced box next to the small brick fireplace and stacked them neatly in the stove using all the experience at fire building she'd gained from eight years on the road with her father. Once the wood was stacked to start a fire, the small redhead looked around, searching for something to set it alight. Failing to find matches, flint and steel, or even a bow and stick, Ranma walked back to the stove and reached toward the wood, pointing her palm at the dry fuel.

"Mouko Takabisha," she whispered, and a small bolt of blue-green ki shot from her hand into the pile. Unfortunately, she still didn't seem to have a handle on how powerful her ki blasts were, and rather than setting the pile alight, the wood almost disintegrated as the sphere of ki shattered it into splinters.

"Eek!" exclaimed Ranma as she hopped back from the new pile of smoldering sawdust and splinters in the stove. "Dammit! I guess I'll have to try again."

Collecting more wood, the red-haired girl build another stack of wood in the stove atop the pile of what had once been neatly-split wood, thinking of using the mound of wood shards for kindling. When she finished building her second stack, Ranma pointed her right index finger at the mound of sawdust and concentrated. Carefully, the redhead gathered the tiniest amount of ki she thought she could project into her outstretched appendage, and without saying a word, she released the controlled burst at the splinters.

The tiny pinpoint of ki flew lazily away from her finger, but only half way there it winked out, its power expended. Ranma was starting to get annoyed: why was getting a little breakfast so damn hard?! After a moment of glaring at the still unlit fire, she sighed. 'It's a good thing I didn't destroy it this time, I guess," she thought, her mouth twisting into a wry grin.

Setting herself once more, she tried the same tactic as her second try, but this time she gathered more ki. A tiny ball of aquamarine energy formed at the tip of her right index finger, and when she judged that there was enough to start the fire, though not blow it away, she once again released it.

The sphere of ki still moved slowly from her finger, though not lazily like the last one, and when it impacted with the pile of splinters and sawdust, it burst, releasing its energy. Ranma's eyes got wide as she watched the spot where her ki impacted the sawdust, and for a few breathless moments the young martial artist thought she'd failed again. But no, there it was, a tiny tendril of smoke began to rise from the splinters, and Ranma couldn't resist a joyous "Yatta!" as she saw the first tiny flames lick their way up from the depths of the pile.

Ranma blew gently on the tiny fire until it was going well, and then watched as the actual wood caught. From past experience, the redhead knew that she needed to wait until the fire had produced some coals before it would be hot enough for cooking, so she decided to check on Ryoga.

Walking back out of the small cottage, Ranma trotted back to her old friend. The oft-times lost boy was still lying where she'd left him, asleep, so the small redhead knelt next him and gently put a hand on his shoulder.

"Ryoga," she said softly, gently shaking the dark-haired young man. "Wake up, Ryoga."

The dark-haired boy stirred in his sleep, and for a moment, Ranma thought that he might actually wake up. But like Ranma, Ryoga was a heavy sleeper, and after a moment he ceased all movement and went back into a deep slumber.

"Poor guy must be exhausted," Ranma said, thinking out loud. "I guess I'll let him sleep until breakfast is ready."

Without another word, Ranma stood and, stopping only long enough to snag her pack from where it lay on the ground, trotted back into the hut ready to cook a good breakfast for herself and her friend.

--

When Hibiki Ryoga woke, he found himself alone. Slowly getting to his feet, the young man tried to gather his thoughts. The first thing he remembered was the girl he had pulled from the spring; the girl with the beautiful red hair and blue-grey eyes.

The boy turned in a full circle, scanning the area for her, but she was nowhere in sight. Instead he could see numerous springs stretching out across the valley in one direction, a small, thatch-roofed cottage in another, and the path he'd followed to get here in the third direction. Thinking that he should go look for that beautiful girl, he decided to head toward the small hut, its open door and the smoke curling from the chimney seeming very inviting. However, as is understandable for any Hibiki, he got lost on the way.

'How on earth did I get in the middle of all the springs?' Ryoga thought to himself as he continued to walk. Unfortunately for the bandana-clad boy, his thoughts distracted him from where he was walking, and he tripped. The last thought that entered his mind before he hit the surface of the pool was, 'Damn you Ranma, this is all your fault!'

--

As Cologne walked away from the balding Japanese man, she pondered what he had said. 'The Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu? That was Happi's school. If he has any affiliation with Happosai, I can't allow him to escape.'

Seeing her purple-haired great granddaughter walking out of her house, she called the young warrior. "Shampoo!" she said in Jusendo's dialect of Mandarin. "I have a task for you and your friends."

"What am I to do, Great Grandmother?" the young Amazon replied respectfully.

"Do you remember all of the commotion last night?" Cologne waited for her to nod before continuing. "I want you, Perfume, and Conditioner to accompany the Guide and that Japanese man back to Jusenkyo. Do not allow the Japanese out of your sight."

"Yes, Great Grandmother," came Shampoo's reply, and she ran off in search of her two friends.

While her great granddaughter went about her task, Cologne made her way to the guesthouse that the Guide had been given for the night. Like all the guest houses in Nyuucheizu, it was a small, two room affair with a combined sitting room and sleeping area in the front and a small kitchen in back, which was also used for bathing. Though the roof was still thatch, it was thick and in good repair, and there was a well-crafted covered porch attached to the front of each house. Walking up to the door, she had to knock only once before the fat Chinese man who was the current Jusenkyo Guide answered.

"Honored Elder," the Guide bowed respectfully, his tone showing that he honored her position. "To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?"

"The man who chased you here yesterday will be returning to Jusenkyo with an escort," she said, a smile reaching her lips at the refreshing change from the Japanese. At least some males still knew how to be respectful of a Matriarch of the Joketsuzoku. "I just wanted to ask you a question before you go with them. The Japanese said he had a son, and I wanted to know if he was cursed."

The Guide thought for a moment before replying, his hand absently rising to rub his chubby chin. "Yes, Honored One. He fell into the Nyannichuan."

"Ah," Cologne said, a strange gleam in her eyes as she considered the implications...and the possibilities. "Thank you, Guide. May you have a safe journey back to your home."

The Guide bowed once again. "Thank you for your hospitality, Honored Elder. May you always find victory in battle."

Cologne turned away and walked back toward the guesthouse where the Japanese man was now introducing himself to his escort. He smiled as he spoke to the young Joketsuzoku in Japanese, but Cologne could tell that he didn't think much of the thirteen-year-old girls she had chosen as his guards. Cologne almost couldn't stop a smirk from forming on her face as she realized that though they were his guards, he didn't know whether they were guard him against danger or escape. Before the Elder could continue her musings, Shampoo turned from the group when she saw her great grandmother and jogged over to the aged woman.

"Shampoo," said Cologne in Mandarin, her voice still holding warmth for her great granddaughter but now with the normal, cold edge of command a Matriarch must have. "Remember not to let him out of your sight, child. Also, the man's son fell into the Nyannichuan."

"Aiyah," replied Shampoo, her eyes widening at the statement. "So we are looking for either a boy or a girl?"

"Yes, Shampoo. I suppose he told you about his son?" The younger Amazon nodded, and Cologne continued in the same tone. "Bring both of them back to the village after you find him. You may as well get started now."

Shampoo nodded one last time and turned from her great grandmother. Trotting back to the group, she filled the other girls in on their mission in Mandarin. While she was doing this, Cologne pulled Genma aside.

"Saotome-san," she said, returning to Japanese, her voice projecting sympathy through its normal gravely tone. "I do have some bad news for you. According to the Guide, your son has fallen into the Nyannichuan. You should be looking for a girl as well as a boy as you search for your son."

Genma looked shocked and extremely unhappy at this announcement, but his only reply was to nod sadly and sigh. "The path of a true martial artist is fraught with peril," he said grimly after a moment, and the ancient Matriarch thought she could hear more worry in his voice than just for the fact that his son was cursed.

As Cologne was analyzing Genma's reaction to his son's curse, the final component of the party, the Guide, finally arrived on the scene at that moment, once again clothed in his green, military cut, communist party uniform.

"Good to see you human again, Mr. Customer," he said to Genma, his voice once again its normal, somewhat jovial tone. Then he turned to Cologne and spoke in a more respectful voice. "Thank again for refuge, Honored Elder."

Cologne responded to his statement with a gracious nod and replied, "Think nothing of it." Turning to the gathered warriors, she spoke again, "It is time to go, warriors. May you find victory and honor." The traditional blessing to departing warriors seemed inadequate in the Elder's ears when speaking to such young Amazons, so she added in a warmer tone, "and come home safely, children."

With that, the three Amazons, Genma, and the Guide left the Nyuucheizu village of the Joketsuzoku and set out for the cursed valley of Jusenkyo.

--

The fire was going well when Ranma returned to the small hut and dropped her pack at the door, and the young martial artist could see that a good bit of two of the logs had the orange, glowing look of coals. Grabbing what looked to be a makeshift poker from beside the fireplace, she set about breaking up the coals and spreading them evenly in the bottom of the iron stove.

Once the coals were even, the red-haired girl walked over to the wood box next to the fireplace and looked in, her smile dampening a bit. 'I'll have to split some firewood to replace what I've taken,' she thought, looking at the three remaining pieces of wood. Shrugging in indifferent agreement with the idea, Ranma snagged two of the remaining pieces of split wood and returned to the stove, adding them to the already burning logs and glowing coals.

As the new logs smoldered in the heat of the coals, Ranma turned away from the fire to search for ingredients. First and foremost, she immediately saw the large jar of rice on a shelf above the stove next to a large pot with a heavy lid. Jumping up to reach the shelf, the red-haired martial artist snagged first the pot and then the jar and set them on the table. Ranma was somewhat upset at the idea of taking the food without asking, but the small chamber orchestra playing in her abdomen silenced such thoughts in favor of the idea of a hot breakfast.

Once Ranma had poured a generous helping of uncooked rice into the pot, she took a quick look around for a source of water to wash and cook the food. For a bare second the redhead considered using some of the spring water from the training ground, but that thought was rejected out of hand. 'If a dunking can do this, I hate to think what drinking it would do!' she thought, banishing a few mental images from her mind. She didn't even want to think about something so weird.

After discarding the springs as a source of water, she almost thought she would have to search for a stream somewhere in the hills surrounding the cursed training ground when she spotted something hidden away in the corner beyond the stove. Walking over to the object while still absently carrying the pot of uncooked rice, her face broke into a sunny smile. 'A water pump!' she thought excitedly, grateful that she wouldn't have to gather the water from a stream or some such.

A tremendously contagious and bright smile making her face look somewhere between kawaii and sucrose shock, the small redhead set the pot under the pump and quickly worked the handle, a stream of clear, cold water pouring over the rice after only three pumps. She continued until she thought she had enough to begin washing the rice.

Once the rice was completely covered, Ranma stopped adding more water and set the pot on the floor. Sitting with the pot between her legs, Ranma plunged her hands into the icy water and began to work the rice, cleaning it. The redhead's father had taught her that everything was training, and cooking was no different. Her hands blurred as she tried to put as much speed into the act of washing the rice as she could while still be precise and careful enough not to spill any of the wash water, and she succeeded...mostly. Considering that her gi was already damp from her dip in the Nyannichuan yesterday and the dew from this morning, Ranma didn't even notice the few splashes that made it out of the pot.

Finally done with the first wash, Ranma drained the dirty water into the large stone basin under the water pump, careful not to pour out any rice, and then she repeated the washing process.

After another two cycles of wash and drain, the red-haired girl finally deemed the rice clean enough to eat. Having so decided, she added enough water for the rice to cook and set the pot atop the stove. Once Ranma had added the heavy lid to the steamer pot, she went in search of other things to eat.

Unfortunately, the girl didn't see much of anything she knew how to cook, the ingredients being foreign to her definitely Japanese cooking skills. The sunny smile that had dominated her face for some time began to fade, but after a moment it returned in full force. 'I almost forgot!' she thought happily. 'I've got some food in my pack!'

The girl practically bounced to the door and opened the heavy, canvas backpack. Reaching inside, Ranma began to pull out ingredients, mentally cataloguing them as she set them on the table.

'Dried bonito flakes…dried wakame...a jar of miso...a couple of shiitake...some sardines...hmmmm,' she thought, and once all the food items were sitting on the table, she gazed at them, deep in thought. 'What can I make with this stuff? Maybe...no I'd need nori, mirin, and sugar for that. How 'bout...nope, nope, I'd need chicken and squid, not to mention the soba. Damn...what can I make?'

Finally, after a few minutes of this, Ranma looked up and snapped her fingers, her eyes once again bright and happy. Happy enough that she spoke aloud. "I got it! Miso soup!"

Pleased at having a plan of action once more, Ranma wasted no time in getting started on the soup. After all, she had to make it basically from scratch, and that meant taking some time.

'First thing's first,' she thought as her eyes swept around the small cottage. 'I need to make the dashi, and I need a pot for that.'

After a few more moments of searching, she finally spied a smaller pot sitting half hidden behind the water pump. Not wasting any time, Ranma quickly filled the pot with cold, clear water from the pump and set it on the stove next to the boiling rice steamer. Spying that, Ranma was a bit disappointed and thought, 'Oh well, guess it'll still be camp rice.'

Pushing thoughts of well-cooked rice from her mind, the red-haired martial artist turned her attention back to the task at hand. Searching the kitchen area once again, Ranma turned up a fairly good knife. While it was a bit dull and had seen some major use, it was good steel and well made, unlike most of the other objects in the hut. Moving over to the table, Ranma began her ingredient preparation (read: insane knife training) by throwing the block of dried wakame and the shiitake into the air.

Yelling, Ranma jumped to meet the now falling food items, and her hand became a blur. A moment later, Ranma landed in a stance, a self-satisfied smirk on her face. Behind her, as proof that she deserved to smirk like that, the wakame and shiitake fell gently onto the table in neat piles, perfectly sliced.

Ranma allowed herself a few more seconds of satisfaction before continuing the preparation of breakfast. However, the sound of boiling water coming from the stove snatched her attention away from patting herself on the back, and Ranma quickly removed the pot from the stove and added the dried bonito flakes and about half of the wakame.

The water was hot enough to continue to simmer even after Ranma removed it from the stove, and after only a few moments, the flakes sank to the bottom signifying that the stock was ready. Ranma quickly used the knife to spear the used flakes from the bottom before the dashi could become bitter and tossed them back onto the table. After sampling the finished dashi, Ranma scooped a good bit of her aka miso (red miso, the strongest variety) into the steaming stock and started stirring, trying to dissolve the soy paste into the fish stock, and even though she was forced to use a knife to stir soup, the redhead was relatively successful at her task.

Once the miso paste had dissolved, Ranma snagged the other ingredients off of the table and added the shiitake slices and remaining wakame to the now wonderfully aromatic soup. Setting aside the pot holding the miso soup, Ranma suddenly realized that she could no longer hear boiling coming from the pot containing the rice. Almost cursing, the diminutive cook snagged the pot off of the hot, cast-iron top of the stove and quickly removed the lid, her smile long faded as she gazed upon the somewhat seared rice.

Ranma sighed. 'I never have been able to cook rice just right, even with modern equipment,' she thought, a bit sadly, 'and camp rice is even harder to get right. Oh well, I'm too hungry to try again.'

Swallowing her pride and disappointment in favor of hopefully swallowing her breakfast in a few minutes, Ranma snagged a couple of bowls from the cupboard and quickly filled them with the slightly-sticky short-grain rice. Then, careful not to spill any, she poured the miso soup over the top. That done, she opened the two cans of sardines remaining on the table and set the small fish over the top of her creations. Spying a bottle of soy sauce and a jar of black sesame seeds sitting in the window under the dried herbs, Ranma snagged them, and after sprinkling a generous portion of sesame seeds over soup, rice, and fish, she finished the meal by topping it off with a swirl of soy. Satisfied with her creations, Ranma took a bowl in each hand and walked to the door of the small cottage.

When Ranma finally emerged from the hut carrying the two bowls of miso soup and rice, she found Ryoga missing. A bit worried about her erstwhile friend, Ranma set down the bowls and began to search the training ground, hungry as she was.

"Ryoga?!" she called. "Where are you Ryoga?"

After about half an hour of searching, she was very unhappy with her lack of results, but she chalked it up to that famous Hibiki sense of direction. With a sigh, Ranma headed back to where she had left breakfast, her now absolutely empty stomach demanding that she eat both bowls of now-cool miso-covered rice.

--

"Wow!" said Mint, excitement evident in his voice. "It's a girl!"

"Where?" replied Mint's larger counterpart, Lime. Mint pointed briefly across a few of Jusenkyo's springs toward the Guide's hut, and Lime quieted, staring.

The two Musk warriors crouched behind some bushes near the Guide's domicile. Their mission was a simple one: bring back some various cursed water, especially Nyannichuan, to replenish the Musk's supplies. However, they knew that there was always a standing order to capture any women found during a mission, and with the appearance of this redheaded beauty, Mint had already decided that she would be the primary focus of the mission, now.

"I will now try speaking to a woman," said Lime, and before Mint could stop the larger warrior, he jumped from behind the bush with a grace and speed that belied his bulk to land nearly five meters away. From there, he rushed forward to confront the startled redhead just as she was finishing a meal of some sort. For her part, the girl jumped back two meters and half dropped into a defensive stance, the bowl she had been eating out of laying forgotten on the ground where she'd been sitting.

"Hello," said Lime, a huge, dopey smile on his face. The gi-clad girl blink-blinked and stood straight, relaxing a bit.

"I don't know Chinese," she replied in a somewhat confused voice. "Sorry."

By this time, Mint was standing next to his larger friend, startling the girl once again. She was obviously tense, and to the seasoned eyes of a veteran warrior like Mint, she was obviously a fighter. Knowing, deep down, that any girl as beautiful as this in this area who was also a warrior was probably a Joketsuzoku, Mint became wary, but her use of Japanese threw him off a bit. Recognizing her language and the fact that she wasn't threatening or attacking them, Mint decided she must not be an Amazon and replied in what was obviously the girl's native tongue, "Hello."

"Oh," the girl said, smiling brightly. "Hello."

Mint's eyes widened, and his smile was just as large and dopey as Lime's. With that smile, all thoughts of being warriors and worrying about the girl being a fighter fled from the smaller Musk's mind, and he let instinct and inexperience take over. Turning to his friend, Mint said in a very happy, almost singsong voice, "I have talked to a woman, and a woman has now talked to me. I will now try touching a woman."

The girl's eyes widened a bit at this, and she took a step back. However, Mint surged forward with his usual, blinding speed. Before the girl could blink, Mint reached her, the animalistic warrior's hands resting on her left shoulder and right breast. The boy's eyes glazed over at the feel of the soft flesh under his left hand, so he missed the look of utter fury in the girl's eyes.

WHAPP!!

The next thing Mint knew, he was lying crumpled on the ground, his face burning with the pain of a VERY hard slap. Luckily, the blow brought the warrior back to his senses, but unfortunately, it was already too late. The Musk looked up at the girl and almost gasped at the vision of absolute fury standing above him with a battle aura nearly three quarters the size of Prince Herb's when he was angry!

"HOW DARE YOU!!" the girl shouted, anger and indignation literally rolling off of her in waves of heat and ki energy. "Someone should teach you some manners…"

As the girl shouted, Mint and Lime's eyes widened even more. Just as she said the word 'manners,' her form shifted. She grew by a good thirty centimeters, her hair turned black, and her breasts vanished. Her voice, a low soprano, shifted along with her body, becoming a mid-range tenor. Worst of all, the aquamarine battle aura that had obscured her form blazed even larger, and all the terrified Musk could do was stare in frozen, abject fear at the aura of ki burning around him, one that managed to rival their master's.

"…and I'm just the person to do it!" finished the black-haired, pigtailed boy standing before the two Musk, and before they could move, the martial artist rushed forward to attack with a cry of rage.

--

The walk from Nyuucheizu to Jusenkyo was a pleasant one, especially on such a nice morning. Shampoo, Perfume, and Conditioner almost skipped along, only the fact that they were Joketsuzoku warriors preventing the girlish action. Still, the three young warrior women were all smiles. The sky was clear, the wind was brisk, and the sunlight was warm. And even better, one of the Matriarchs had actually sent them on a mission! They each knew, deep down, that she wouldn't have sent three thirteen-year-old warriors-in-training if this would be a dangerous mission, but they had still been chosen to go on a mission, however safe and peaceful. All of these combined into a wonderful morning for a walk, and even the Guide seemed in very good spirits.

Shampoo briefly shifted her mind into fighting mode and took quick stock of their situation. They were only a little ways from Jusenkyo and making good time. Each of her friends wore the strangely-colorful light armor of their particular village of Joketsuzoku and had the weapon she favored: Perfume held an iron-bound staff, Conditioner's sword was sheathed on her belt, and Shampoo's own bonbori were secreted away using her friend Mousse's hidden weapons techniques.

Thinking of Mousse sent Shampoo's mind down a tangent. Mousse had to be the most annoying boy in the village, and most everyone would be surprised that she counted him a friend, especially considering the number of times she had beaten him to the ground for expressing his 'love' for her. Shampoo mentally sighed as she thought of the myopic boy; he really was her best friend when he could keep his feelings under control, but that was happening less and less of late.

Trying to forget about Mousse, Shampoo decided to watch the scenery. Being in no real hurry, the small party of travelers walked relatively slowly through the forests of Jusendo near the cursed training ground. For a moment, the young Joketsuzoku considered the silence that always surrounded Jusenkyo, as though the animals knew to stay away instinctively. It made her own warrior instincts tingle when she considered the lack of normal forest sounds, like there was always a large predator stalking nearby.

Shaking herself, Shampoo released her fear. There were no predators near Jusenkyo because ALL the animals stayed away, even the largest of the tigers and bears. Focusing on the path, Shampoo forced herself to relax and think of her mission.

'Great Grandmother said that I shouldn't let the Japanese out of my sight,' she thought, her face twisting into the cute, small frown of deep contemplation. 'I wonder why she would be so insistent that I watch an outsider? He doesn't seem particularly strong.'

As her thoughts turned to the large Japanese man with them, her eyes were drawn to him. Shampoo could see the worry in the man's eyes as he determinedly marched down the narrow path behind Conditioner, who was at point. After him was Perfume and then the Guide, with Shampoo taking rear-guard.

As she looked at the elder Saotome, she began to see his inherent, perhaps even intentional, deception. The way he moved belied his assumed bulk, and he displayed a grace and strength that reminded her of her own father: the strongest man in the village. Shampoo had always harbored a secret respect for the man, even though she was expected to treat him sternly as a proud warrior to a weak male, a state made especially so after her mother had passed and she became the defacto head of her immediate family (not counting her great grandmother, of course). He had had a quiet strength, and she couldn't help but feel that he deserved more than the lot of a man in the Joketsuzoku.

The sound of fighting shook the purple-haired Joketsuzoku from her reverie, and she immediately drew her bonbori, her friends doing likewise with their own weapons. Together with the Guide and the Japanese, the group rushed forward the last, small distance to Jusenkyo.

Rounding the last curve to Jusenkyo at a mad dash, Shampoo skidded to a halt, her eyes finding a vision of masculinity before her. The black-haired boy was fighting two Musk warriors, and he had them totally out classed. Such a man would make and excellent husband and a bit of drool formed in the corner of Shampoo's mouth when the martial artist's gi flew open for a moment to show his perfectly-muscled chest and washboard stomach. Unfortunately, she forgot that when she'd rushed forward she had taken the lead of the group, and a pile of young Joketsuzoku quickly formed on top of her. Luckily for the three warrior women, the two men managed to stop before joining them.

After a few moments, the pile of flailing limbs untangled itself, and all three Joketsuzoku found themselves entranced by the fighter. The beating he gave the two Musk was perfect; each strike calculated to cause maximum pain with a minimum of actual damage. By the time the fight was over, the three warriors' eyes had glazed, their thoughts totally absorbed into a world where the perfect male before them was their husband. Shampoo briefly and fearfully noted the huge battle aura around him, but his gi chose that moment to fall open as the fighting had loosened his belt, and the young Joketsuzoku's thoughts abandoned any worries about his power in favor of a fantasy a bit too graphic to write here.

Finally, the pigtailed boy left the two unconscious Musk lying side-by-side on the ground. He was breathing hard, and a thin sheen of sweat covered his exposed flesh. After taking a moment to get his breathing under control, the boy looked down at the defeated, bruised, and beaten Musk and said, "There. Maybe next time you'll show better manners."

Before Shampoo could call out to the victorious martial artist, the Japanese man shouted to the gi-clad boy, "Ranma! Good fight! You alright?"

The dark-haired boy turned to the voice, and the three Joketsuzoku almost relapsed into their glazed, unresponsive state. This was the first good look they'd gotten at the boy's face, and Shampoo was surer than ever that this one would be hers. In her mind, the boy smiled and walked to her. Out of his mouth, in the most beautiful voice, he proclaimed how he'd fallen in love with her at first sight, and now he would now challenge her for her hand. She envisioned her response, both confident and demure: dropping into a combat stance and attacking. In her mind, the fight was close, but she finally would lose, and he would go to her, and they would be happily married. If one looked at the other Amazons, one would know that the same fantasy played in each of their heads.

However, before these scenarios could finish running they were shattered. Those knowing the affects of Jusenkyo would swear this was impossible, but the pigtailed martial artist changed, right there, ten meters from the nearest water. He shrank from masculine stature and defined muscles into a kawaii, diminutive girl. Her hair changed color to a bright crimson, and her features softened into the curves of a woman. Through the brief moment of change, as though she didn't even notice, the girl smiled.

"Otousan!" she shouted in a very enthusiastic voice. "I'm so glad to see you!"

Suddenly, a dazed martial artist held a bundle of redheaded energy, hugging him tightly. He looked down at the girl, his son turned daughter, with wide eyes.

"I love you, Otousan!" she said with a peck on his cheek. With that, Saotome Genma fell backward into a dead faint.

--

Author's Notes (2/22/4):

Continuing from Chapter One, I've revised this one too. Sorry for throwing all this your way so quickly, Poly. I just have a brief note, so here goes:

The dish that Ranma makes in the guide's hut is real, and it's good. I may use Hon-Dashi (instant dashi) to make it, but I used to have it for breakfast at least twice a week. If anybody wants the actual recipe, shoot an email my way and I'll send it to you.

Well, that's about it for the Author's ranting, so until later.


	3. Chapter 3

Three

A Ranma ½ Fanfic by jimra

All Ranma ½ characters, places, and things in general are the property of Takahashi Rumiko-sama. All hail the great Takahashi! And no, I won't be changing the disclaimer in this fic except to add a comment like this one.

Chapter Three

--

"Grrrrr."

Saotome Ranma, diminutive, curvaceous, kawaii redhead that she was, sat on her unconscious father's chest and growled. She was angry, and she had every right to be. 'HOW DARE HE FAINT?!' she shouted in her mind, and an angry, dangerous aquamarine glow began to emanate from her, starting from her now stormy grey-blue eyes. 'Baka-Oyaji, you're gonna pay for this! You better not faint just 'cause I show ya a little affection!'

Not entirely focused on her father, Ranma noticed that there were others with him, including the fat guy who'd tried to stop them from sparring over Jusenkyo when she and her father had first arrived. These others were slowly backing away from the obviously familial dispute, and as such, Ranma decided to ignore them.

As the glow intensified, Ranma's hand clenched into a fist, and once again she felt herself change. It didn't bother him, really, though he did want to know why he was switching genders seemingly at random. Drawing his fist back, Ranma banished his idle thoughts and concentrated on his father.

"WAKE UP, BAKA-OYAJI!!" he shouted furiously, and before the shout finished leaving his mouth, the blow connected with the older Saotome's cheek. Ignoring the stinging of his knuckles, the dark-haired martial artist watched intently to see if his father would wake up, and when Genma's eyes finally began to open, the pigtailed boy jumped from his sitting position to land about five meters away, crouched in a fighting stance. His aura continued to blaze around him in the mid-morning light, competing with the sun for luminous superiority.

--

Shampoo almost cried as she watched her dream, with no help from water, melt away into an amazingly pretty redhead. She watched the whole scene as though in a dream, her mind not able to grasp how such a perfect specimen of manhood could become this...this...GIRL! Shampoo was almost in tears when the now-glowing redhead drew her attention back to the real world.

Snapped out of her daze as the girl's grey-blue eyes, identical to her other form, began to glow in an aquamarine light, and very quickly, the rest of her body followed. Shampoo was vaguely aware that the other warriors were backing away from this display even as she withdrew from the immediate vicinity, watching the girl closely for any sign she might turn on the three Amazons.

"Aiyah!" Shampoo exclaimed aloud. Just as suddenly as the beautiful boy had turned into the redhead, he was back, the girl changing before her eyes into the same being of black hair and hard muscle she'd so admired before, and he was about to hit his father by the looks of it.

The sound of the punch was like a gunshot or thunderclap echoing off of the surrounding mountains, but the young Joketsuzoku wasn't paying attention to the sound so much as once again staring at the dream of a man that stood before her. However, when he leapt off of his father and assumed a fighting stance, Shampoo's warrior instincts took over, and her daydreams faded to the back of her mind.

Slowly, the fat, old Japanese man was making his way to his feet, holding his cheek in obvious pain. A small groan sounded from the older man's throat, and as he finally made it to his feet, he faced his son, the younger man still burning with anger.

"Owww," Genma croaked, but his voice was growing stronger. It looked like the blow that the pigtailed boy had dealt his father must have hurt...badly. "Ranma? What'd I do, boy? I may have been having this horrible nightmare, but you didn't have to hit me THAT hard to wake me up!"

Ranma stood there and growled again, but Shampoo found it to be much more menacing when he did it as a boy. The young Joketsuzoku got the distinct impression that there was going to be a fight, and that the tribe's current Japanese guest probably wouldn't fare too well when it happened.

"O…ya…ji..." Ranma's growl took on words, tone rising slowly in anger as he drew the word out like a katana sliding, slow as death, from its scabbard. "How dare you faint?! I thought you were supposed to be a man, ya fat idiot! Where do you get off fainting after everything you did to me! Hell! I don't know why I bother with you anyway!"

By this time, Shampoo was actually afraid. She would never admit it, but the boy's anger frightened her. The warrior could easily see Ranma's battle aura blazing around him, and the only other time she'd ever seen such a thing was when she was very little. Her great grandmother had had to battle a daemon to save the village, and she had manifested something similar to the blue-green power that surrounded Ranma's form. Hers had been much bigger, to be sure, but that was to be expected. For a male and an outsider, Ranma was terrifyingly powerful.

Once again, Shampoo was forced from her thoughts by outside events. Launching himself at the older man, the pigtailed boy practically flew across the ground, his fist drawn back. This time, however, Genma was prepared, and manifesting his own battle aura, the elder Saotome set himself to block his enraged son's attack. To Shampoo's eyes, the Master of the Saotome-style Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu would have had a fairly impressive battle aura, but Ranma's power, still blazing around his rapidly-moving form, eclipsed his father's to the point that Genma's might as well not exist.

Before the young Amazon warrior could analyze the situation further, the pair of combatants met, the sound of their collision echoing against the mountains once more. For a single, agonizing second, father and son stared at each other over their interlocked arms, each one's face showing his fury at the other, and then the moment ended.

Ranma forced his arms down, breaking Genma's hold and forcing the older man's arms away from his body. Before the elder Saotome could bring his hands back to the fore, the pigtailed boy launched a hard, double palm heel strike on his father's chest. Genma flew back from the blow, crashing to the ground some seven meters away.

Shampoo found herself gasping for breath; the entire display had taken less than a second! Ranma stood with his arms out stretched, unmoving for a single slow second as the Amazon trio stared at his rippling muscles, but then the dark-haired martial artist blurred, his form becoming indistinct as the Joketsuzoku tried to follow his movements with eyes not used to such speed. Before the Matriarch's great granddaughter found him, Ranma was already engaged in what seemed to be a life or death fight with his father.

The violet-haired Amazon felt her knees go weak as she watched the two Saotome's arms and legs blur with every strike, leaping five or six meters into the air with each pass and hanging there in complete defiance of the law of gravity for seconds at a time. Shampoo could no longer hide behind her ingrained belief that a Joketsuzoku was always more powerful than an Outsider, and Ranma was certainly the living proof that convinced her of that. The pigtailed boy's attacks were poetry in motion, and his blocks, almost musical in their fluid grace and quick confidence. Ranma was easily dodging everything his father threw at him, and that's when Shampoo noticed something that should not be there. A smile.

Genma was smiling at his son, his happiness at Ranma's newly shown abilities almost palpable. To Shampoo's eyes, the elder Saotome was struggling to keep up with his son, while Ranma wasn't even breathing hard, but Genma's expression was not that of a man about to lose. It was the face of a man who was proud of his student...and about to take the fight to a new level.

Before Shampoo could contemplate this further, Genma spoke, his voice strong and even despite his sweaty, out of breath appearance. "Ranma, my son, I've waited quite a while for this day. You're actually giving me a run for my money in the standard Musabetsu I've taught you, and this is a line I've wanted you to cross for quite a while, something I've been looking forward to."

At the man's words, Ranma's expression became one of confusion and a bit of incredulousness, and after a few more lightning-quick attacks, the heir of the Saotome Ryu backed off from his father and listened. Shampoo and the other Amazons, having witnessed the fight to this point, also held looks that seemed to say, "What the hell are you babbling about, old man?"

'What could he possibly be talking about,' Shampoo puzzled. 'He was clearly losing the fight.'

Heedless of the incredulous stares directed at him, Genma continued speaking. "I've been holding back for quite a while, Ranma, waiting. Training you hard so that I could teach you to become a true master of the Saotome Ryu, learn its deepest secrets, and now you've reached the point where I can't hold back any more. Now I can spar with you at my full strength and speed, and now I can teach you the most powerful techniques of our school!"

With that, Genma drew himself up, the impression of a fat, old Japanese man falling away almost like Ranma's transformation. The older man's breathing was immediately under his control, and sweat ceased to run down his face. The muscle hidden by small amounts of fat and a slouching posture was now evident in the Master of the Saotome Ryu, and Genma once again looked like the master of martial arts that he had always been. Without further words, the older man rushed forward, a blur to Shampoo's eyes even as a new, strong, dark-blue battle aura formed around his body.

--

Cologne had stood staring after the party of young warriors she'd sent to Jusenkyo for some time, a strange feeling telling her that there was more going on here than she knew. After shaking herself from the feeling, the old Matriarch of the Joketsuzoku turned from the gate and made her way to the council hall, more specifically, to the library contained within the ancient structure. The whole time, the feeling that something strange was happening did not leave her.

Since that time, Cologne had been studying book after book and scroll after scroll in the wan candlelight of the library, ancient tomes and yellowed parchment maintained with the utmost respect and care. The collected knowledge of the Joketsuzoku resided within the walls of the Nyuucheizu council hall, and Cologne would never allow the works to leave the protective stone structure.

The ancient elder was searching for strange events centered on Jusenkyo; of course, strange was a relative term in a land of super-strong women, animalistic men, winged people, and water that conferred a polymorphic curse upon any who touched it. Where most would call such a land strange in its own right, Cologne was searching for that which was bizarre even in such a place.

Pouring over her books, even older than she was, Cologne began with the full history of the Joketsuzoku. She studied the collected tomes, her three hundred years of life giving her both the skills and the patience to perform such extensive research.

Records of the founding of the Joketsuzoku, the first village being Nyuucheizu itself, were spotty at best. Most of the ancient records were actually etched into soft stone tablets rather than inscribed on parchment or paper, and although the scribes at the archives made it their duty to transcribe all deteriorating works into master tomes, they had determined that the oldest of tablets were still in better repair than the newer, but more fragile, parchment scrolls. Hence, they had not yet transcribed the tablets. As such, Cologne poured over thin stone tablets, her mind translating the ancient, dead form of written Chinese without conscious thought.

The founding of the tribe was shrouded in mystery and clouded with myth, the founders themselves a group of twelve women. Supposedly, a goddess descended from the heavens and taught them the very first of their martial arts, the Amazonian Wu Shu that eclipsed most every other art. At the same time, the goddess gave them the structure of a matriarchal society that would be strong, but other than some semi-religious most likely mythical text, most of the records were missing, lost in the constant battles to control Jusendo. Even Nyuucheizu had been burned twice since the founding, three thousand years ago, once by the Musk and once by the Phoenix.

As Cologne finished scanning the final bit of records from the founding period, a brief passage caught her eye. It regarded the discovery of Jusenkyo, and Cologne was about to begin reading when she abruptly felt a large ki signature coming from the direction of the cursed springs.

'By the goddess,' she thought, her mind trying to account for the power she was feeling. 'Who ever is emitting that ki, they have a battle aura nearly three quarters the size of mine!'

At first, her interest was purely academic, but then she remembered her great granddaughter and the strange feeling she'd been having all morning. Leaving the tablets lying where they were, Cologne bounded out of the archives heading for Jusenkyo.

--

Prince Herb of the Musk Dynasty strode across the polished stones of his throne room, his eyes straight ahead as he walked toward his throne, the gilded jade dragon-form seat glittering in the torchlight. The cyan-haired man ignored the numerous courtiers that thronged around the twin row of columns, awaiting their turn to petition the prince. His face was serious and stoic, a wonder considering the annoyingly fawning attitude of most of the courtiers and advisors in the large chamber, but the Prince had learned long ago that anger was his enemy in the affairs of state.

Upon reaching his throne, Herb turned regally, his cloak rustling. With a great deal of dignity, the Prince of the Musk sat down and received the first of his petitioners.

"My lord Prince Herb," began the first, a man whose ancestors must have included both snake and spider. As he spoke, Herb could actually hear the slight lisp of his forked tongue, and the man's spindly limbs created the impression of condescension. The cyan-haired prince knew that the posture was simply a product of his family's heritage, but he still found it hard to avoid becoming angry with the man just because of his body language.

"Speak, man," Herb's voice both carefully neutral and regal.

Continuing to kneel before the throne, the black-haired man spoke to his prince. "Reports from the border post near Mount Phoenix state that there is increased activity among the Phoenix. They are becoming bolder by the day, my Prince. No overt attack has occurred, but they are now entering Musk territory to hunt on a regular basis."

Herb raised a hand to stroke his chin; this new development with the Phoenix could prove dangerous. "Have the men at the outposts challenged them?"

"Yes, my Prince," the spidery man replied in his lisping voice. "Each time the soldiers challenge them, they leave, but every day a new hunting group returns."

"Very well," said the Musk Prince. "Pepper!"

A man with close-cropped brown hair and a white tunic stepped forward and kneeled to his prince. "Yes, my Prince?"

"I want you to put together an envoy to the Phoenix. We need to know what we are up against here, and why they are violating our treaty. You will take care of it personally, and make sure to bring two or three spies with you. I want more than honeyed words from Kima on this expedition."

"Yes, my lord Prince," he replied, and without further waste of time or breath, Pepper stood and marched from the throne room. Herb smiled tightly at his diplomatic advisor's back. The man had never failed in his duty, and Herb was always pleased with the efficiency and accuracy with which he carried out his orders.

Turning his attention back to the spidery man still kneeling before him, Herb said, "What of the Joketsuzoku front, Basil?"

Herb caught the small smile on the man's face, did his best not to be angry with the man for such an infuriating, self-satisfied smirk. 'It's just the way his family is,' Herb thought to himself, over and over. He was mostly successful at keeping his cool, his annoyance only just barely coming through in his voice.

"All is quiet on the Amazon border, my Prince," Basil said. "In fact, we have not seen a single Joketsuzoku warrior in over a month."

'At least we don't have to worry about Joketsu incursions while we deal with the Phoenix,' he thought, relieved that they wouldn't be potentially fighting a war on two fronts. Of course, the Musk Prince showed none of this on his face, his stoic, serious expression never wavering. "And what of our other outposts?"

"The outpost at Jusendo Pass report only three wandering martial artists, probably Japanese, entering Jusendo in the past two months. There is currently no news from the Jusenkyo outpost as I returned directly here from the Phoenix border."

Herb nodded. "Very good then. I want you to go immediately to the Jusenkyo outpost and retrieve their report."

At his prince's order, Basil bowed his head once more. "Yes, my Prince."

With that, the spidery man stood and strode from the court, his dismissal obvious from Herb's order. The Prince of the Musk, for his part, immediately turned to Salt. The aging man was nominally Herb's old tutor, kept around as a general advisor on many things. In reality, known only to Herb, Salt, and a select few high-ranking agents, Salt was the spymaster of the Musk Dynasty. Herb gave the white-haired man a nod that was returned before Salt departed from the throne room.

Turning his attention back to the court at large, Herb spoke loudly. "Any here who wish to petition the crown may step forward now. Herb, Prince of the Musk Dynasty, will now hear your requests."

The first to kneel before his throne was a very old man seemingly composed more of wrinkles than anything else. What little hair was on his head had turned steel grey, and his back was arched. Holding on to his staff with both hands, the ancient man, Sage, if Herb remembered his name correctly, lowered himself to one knee. Although the years obviously lay heavily on his shoulders, he still managed to exude the pride of a Musk warrior, for indeed he had been a warrior since long before Herb was born. It brought a smile to the young Prince's face at the thought of one so old who was still so proud, a warrior to the end.

"What is it you request of the throne, warrior?" asked Herb, and he was pleased to see the smile his words brought to the man's face.

"My Prince," Sage began, his voice reverent as he spoke. "I have come before you on behalf of my great great grandson, Cumin. He wants nothing more in life than to have a chance to become a member of your Royal Guard, and I believe that he is strong enough and skilled enough to join your Guard."

Herb's gaze turned grave as the old warrior spoke, and when Sage finished, he said, "You know the test to become a Royal Guard can end in the death of the candidate, do you not?"

Sage bowed his head. "Yes, my Prince. Both he and I know this, and it is still his dream."

"Very well," replied Herb, his voice solemn. "He will be allowed the testing when Mint and Lime return.

"Thank you, my Prince," spoke Sage, his voice a mixture of pride, happiness, and worry. "I shall inform my great great grandson that he might be prepared for his trial."

Herb nodded his dismissal to the ancient warrior and was about to call the next petitioner when he felt it. His mane of cyan hair swung behind his head as he turned to face east, a huge ki signature drawing his attention. It was certainly nowhere near his own ki reserves, but the signature well eclipsed most of his warriors, including Mint and Lime.

'This will bear investigation,' he thought, mildly disturbed that he hadn't sensed this ki before. Aloud, he said, "I shall hear no more petitioners today."

A wave of disappointment washed through the throne room as nearly fifty petitioners began to leave. With them went most of the courtiers, much to Herb's pleasure. The sycophants were never high on his list of people he wished to see; indeed, he would have preferred to banish them from the court. However, to do so would snub many of his higher commanders, as those very sycophants were their representatives in the court.

Leaving such thoughts behind, the Musk Prince focused on more pressing matters. "Cayenne!" he called, and the black-haired bear descendant who was High General of the Musk Armies stepped forward and knelt before his prince.

"My Prince," he said, nothing but respect in the huge man's voice.

"I trust you felt that ki signature?" he asked, and upon the General's nod, he continued. "I want you take a contingent of our most powerful warriors and investigate that battle aura. Jusenkyo may be neutral ground, but we are not barred from it either. Do not antagonize the holder of that ki, but be ready to defend yourselves."

"Yes, my Prince," replied Cayenne, and with a single bow, he turned on his heel and strode from the throne room.

Herb leaned on the arm of his throne, his head held against his right hand, and he pondered what turn of events this ki signature would bring to his Musk Dynasty.

--

Ranma's teeth were clenched in anger, his eyes glowing with brighter battle aura than the rest of his body. The old man had been holding back, and that alone was enough to piss him off. On top of that, he was now holding his own when Ranma wanted nothing more than to beat the living hell out of him, and that pushed his anger well past its normal threshold. Clenching his teeth, Ranma leapt again at his father, fists blurring as he tried to strike the older man.

Genma dodged or blocked every strike and punch, and even found the time to counter attack, forcing Ranma to back off a bit and focus more on defense. The pigtailed martial artist was vaguely aware of the four spectators of the battle and another approaching rapidly, but they weren't trying to interfere so he paid them little attention.

Ranma lashed out at his father with a vicious series of three strikes: reverse punch, elbow strike, and back fist, and followed it up with a heavy side kick. Genma blocked the reverse punch, but the closing elbow caught the older man in the gut, too quick for him to block. With the combination of the back fist and side kick, the Saotome patriarch was knocked nearly ten meters, performing two back flips and landing in a crouch. Ranma faced his father, taking an offensive stance.

In defiance of all logical examination of the situation, Genma smiled at his son. "I guess I'll have to demonstrate some of the techniques I was referring to earlier."

With that, Genma pulled a long strip of cloth from his inside his shirt. Fully confident in his ability to defeat his father, Ranma smirked and sarcastically said, "What's the deal, Oya—huh?"

Not waiting for his son to finish, Genma wrapped the cloth around him, and to the amazement of all present, the Master of the Saotome Ryu vanished before their eyes.

His voice a mixture of anger and amazement, Ranma said, "How'd ja do that, old man?"

A chuckle from his right made the dark-haired boy smirk, and he launched himself at the sound. However, his fist struck only air, and a moment later he was smashed to the ground by a heavy blow to the back of his head.

"You should learn a little respect for your father, boy," came Genma's voice, seeming to emanate from all around the Saotome heir. "I still have quite a few techniques I haven't taught to you, or weren't you listening a few minutes ago?"

As his laughter filled the air, Ranma made another lunge at the sound, and once again he found himself with a mouthful of dirt. Deep in his heart, the pigtailed martial artist felt something he hadn't felt for his father in quite a while, so long, in fact, that he almost didn't recognize it. Respect. And pride. For the first time in a very, very long time, Genma had done something his son could be proud of.

As he pushed himself off the ground, Ranma chuckled as well, his battle aura dissipating. After spitting a little blood on the ground from the split in his lip he'd somehow failed to notice, he said, "Alright, Oyaji. I guess I'll have to accept that you do still have something to teach me."

As he spoke, Genma faded into view standing about a meter from his son. "Glad you accept that," he said, his voice filled with arrogance, but the pride was still evident in his tone. "You'll yet be the best martial artist on earth."

Ranma rose to face his father, his stance relaxed. "Yeah," he replied casually. Then he took a step forward, grabbing his father by the collar of his shirt and saying, "But that still doesn't explain why you fainted when I gave you a hug!"

The puzzled expression on Genma's face was almost enough for Ranma to drop him, but a splash of water from behind halted that line of thinking. A moment later, a small, cute redhead was holding a panda by the collar of a torn and nearly bursting chinese shirt, both human and animal too surprised to speak.

--

Shampoo watched in amazement as formerly fat but still old Japanese man pulled a long piece of cloth from his shirt and, after a short exchange of Japanese too quick for her to catch, used it to vanish from view. Her eyes widened at the possibility of such a technique's very existence.

Though she was mostly focused on the battle, her warrior training had taught her to always be aware of her surroundings. Of course, the net result of this awareness only informed her that her sister Amazons were equally amazed at this particular turn of events.

The dark-haired Japanese boy said something and then lunged at open air, his battle aura streaking behind him like an aquamarine comet tail, and as quickly as he struck, he was knocked to the ground by an unseen force. Among the four spectators to this strange battle, shock was the prevailing emotion.

Again, words passed between the seen and unseen Japanese, and again the dark-haired boy lunged with the same results. Shampoo was frozen in place, eyes riveted to the scene.

A moment later, the boy's battle aura vanished and his father winked into visibility.

Shampoo still couldn't hear what they were saying, but her attention was suddenly diverted as Perfume stepped forward, her long pink hair flowing in the slight breeze as she walked toward the pair.

Shampoo followed her battle sister slowly from a distance, not knowing what she intended. The pair continued to ignore the approaching Joketsuzoku as the boy lifted his father into the air by the collar of his shirt, saying, "But that still doesn't explain why you fainted when I gave you a hug!"

Before Genma or Shampoo could say a word, Perfume pulled her canteen from her belt and splashed the two Japanese. It actually comforted Shampoo to see the two transform into their cursed forms in the normal fashion. However, she was startled by the now-red-haired girl's response.

"Whadja do that for?!"

--

Author's notes:

Okay, I finally finished the third chapter of Three. Writer's block is still trying to keep me away from this fic, but I hope it's still up to par with my other writing. Later, all.

Rewrite notes (2/25/8)

Sad to say that I haven't written a new chapter in probably a year and half, but that's just the way life's been treating me. Three is now fully updated, but it suffers from the same problem as Charon: a lack of direction. Any suggestions are welcome, including a title change. The original idea I had for this fic has been subsumed into another fic, so the title is no longer actually accurate. The fic that absorbed the idea is Family Curse, by the way, and it also now contains the idea I had for Precision, which wasn't going anywhere either. I considered taking this fic off of ffnet too, but too many people like how it is written. I'll try to squeeze out another chapter from free writing, but without an outline (or even a goal), I doubt this fic will get any additional attention beyond that, so only suggestions from readers will keep this one alive. Thanks in advance. Later.


	4. Chapter 4

Three

A Ranma ½ Fanfic by jimra

All Ranma ½ characters, places, and things in general are the property of Takahashi Rumiko-sama. All hail the great Takahashi!

Chapter Four

--

"Whadja do that for?!"

The question hung in the air for all of a second before the young redhead who spoke it dropped the panda she what about to hit and turned to the three Joketsuzoku currently facing her. She hadn't been paying attention to the three amazons, but that didn't mean that she was unaware of their presence. Ranma stared balefully at the pink-haired girl that still held the now-empty canteen from which the water that now dripped from her small form had come. "Well?" she reiterated.

"Umm…" replied the flustered girl, her voice weak and a bit confused. "Perfume want see if it work right way is all."

The irate redhead blinked, trying to parse the badly formed sentence, and then, some confusion coloring her own words, she asked, "Right way?"

Another of the strange girls stepped forward when the pink-haired one looked quizzically at Ranma. This one, her violet hair and eyes being rather striking, said, "Right way. Jusenkyo curse change with water, but you change without."

"Ooooookay," the pigtailed youth replied, not understanding her answer, and she turned back to the panda that used to be her father. "Maybe you should explain, Pop."

The panda growfed irritably, looking beseechingly at the Chinese girls, and the third one brightened. "Curse is reversed with hot water," she said, answering their unspoken question.

Ranma unceremoniously snagged her animalistic father by the scruff of his neck and dragged him toward the hut, hoping that the remaining miso soup was still warm. At the door, she dropped the panda and, stepping inside, she found the soup pot at the edge of the fire. Luckily, the remaining coals had kept the fish-stock-and-soy-paste soup within warm, and she returned bearing the pot. Without preamble, the redhead dumped the contents on the panda, and apparently the liquid was warm enough as her father quickly replaced the animal. Genma swept a finger across a small puddle of the liquid on his shirt and licked it.

"Not bad, boy," he said in a distracted tone. "Shame that you had to waste it changing me back."

Ranma growled, hoisting her father back up by his much-abused shirt. "Nonna this makes any sense, Oyaji. What the hell is going on?!"

Genma opened his mouth to reply, but he was pre-empted by an approaching figure, one using a most unusual means of locomotion.

--

Cologne crested the final rise before coming within sight of Jusenkyo just in time to see her 'guest', Saotome Genma, have a pot of soup dumped over his head, transforming him back into human form. Hopping on her staff, as was her custom, she raced forward join the group outside of the Guide's hut. Before speaking, she quickly scanned the assembled people, determining by process of elimination that the redhead, who was presently lifting the elder Saotome into the air by his collar, must be Genma's son, Ranma.

"Nonna this makes any sense, Oyaji," the red-haired teen growled. "What the hell is going on?!"

"Perhaps I can be of some assistance in that regard, child," Cologne answered. "The curse of Jusenkyo often disorients those touched by its waters. You would be Ranma, would you not?"

Dropping her father, Ranma turned toward the wizened crone, stating, "Anythin' you can tell me would be appreciated."

"Well," began Cologne, "no one actually knows how old Jusenkyo is, but every spring here has a curse, due to something or someone drowning in it. From what the guide told me, you fell into the Nyannichuan, hence your currently female state."

Before the red-haired girl could answer, a groan sounded from over Cologne's shoulder, and she was quite surprised to see two Musk, Mint and Lime no less, just waking from an obviously injury-induced slumber. Taking this as a priority over explaining anything else to the neo-girl, Cologne threw a perfunctory "Just a moment" over her shoulder and hopped over to the Musk Royal Guards.

Since, at present, the Joketsuzoku and the Musk were at peace, Cologne asked them, "What happened to you two?"

Mint, who was recovering faster than his much larger friend, blink-blinked at the elder before replying. "We saw a red-haired girl out here and decided to say hello."

Cologne could sense Ranma approaching, so she waited for the redhead to join her before speaking. However, Ranma preempted her.

"What the hell are you talking about?" asked the red-haired martial artist, and Cologne made a mental note about how little emotional control the girl had. "You walked out of the woods and GROPED me!"

The two Musk warriors cowered back, and Cologne instantly knew why: the girl's grey-blue eyes were glowing with an aquamarine battle aura. The Amazon Matriarch quickly added another mental note, recognizing that as the power that had initially drawn her to Jusenkyo after her heir.

"B—but," Mint stammered, "we didn't mean anything by it."

A growl escaped the redhead's throat, and then something happened that caused Cologne, Elder of over three hundred years of age and Matriarch of the Joketsuzoku Amazons, to fall off of her staff: Ranma spontaneously changed from cute, diminutive redhead into powerfully-built young man. Fortunately, the Joketsuzoku warrior retained enough poise and battle sense to realize that the pigtailed youth was about to unleash a beating on the two Musk. Quickly interposing herself between Ranma and the hapless Musk warriors, she quickly said, "Ranma, these are Musk warriors. It is likely that you are the first non-Amazon female they have ever seen, so you might want to give them the benefit of the doubt."

Ranma blinked owlishly at the elder, but it was obvious that he was calming down. "Alright," he finally stated, and turning to the Musk, he continued, "Just don't do it again."

Nodding enthusiastically, the two animalistic warriors bid a hasty retreat, and Cologne and Ranma returned to the group. As they approached, the wizened woman studied the young man out of the corner of her eye; never before in all her years had she seen the like. Imagine, someone spontaneously changing due to a Jusenkyo curse!

"Anyway," the pigtailed boy continued in a now-calm voice, as though the incident with the Musk had never happened, "please continue."

"Honestly, young man," Cologne answered, "I've never seen the like of that, of someone transforming without the aid of water. I would like to extend an invitation to both you and your father to stay with us in Nyuucheizu while I study how this occurred."

Of course, he didn't know that Cologne had no intention of letting him refuse the offer, but the Joketsuzoku Elder saw no reason to tell him that. After a moment with a thoughtful expression on his face, Ranma replied, "I dunno. I still need to train, and Tousan and I have a lot more places to go."

Before Cologne could make a counter argument, Genma of all people preempted her. "Actually, boy, I've heard legends of the Joketsuzoku that speak of powerful techniques." Turning towards the Amazon Matriarch, he continued, "I'm sure that if you would share your techniques with Ranma and me, we would be glad to stay for you to study the effects."

Recognizing that Genma had essentially linked their staying to instruction in Amazon fighting techniques in the younger Saotome's mind, her respect for the man rose a notch, and she answered "I'm sure we can work something out. Why don't we all go back to the village and discuss it over lunch?"

Ranma nodded, but before acquiescing to return, he insisted on chopping some wood for the guide to replace what he had used to make breakfast, and after doing so, apologizing for using the hut without permission, and thanking the Guide, he joined the other. In short order, Cologne led the other three Joketsuzoku and the two Japanese martial artists back to Nyuucheizu.

--

Ranma wasn't particularly impressed with the Amazon village, but considering how far Jusendo was from modern civilization, the village's appearance was understandable. Consisting of only two dirt roads and surrounded by a tall, wooden palisade, Nyuucheizu was composed mainly of thatch-roofed houses that couldn't have more than three or four rooms, most only having a single story. Still, the ripples of smoke coming from the brick chimneys gave the place a quaint feel, and there were exceptions to the largely uniform construction. At the center of town, actually built in a large square where the roads intersected, was a modest-sized fortress built of local stone.

"That's the council hall," said a wizened voice from over his shoulder, and Ranma realized that Cologne had noticed him staring.

"Ah," her replied intelligently, turning away from the imposing building to face his hostess.

Cologne smiled at the young man, saying, "If you'd like to take a look around, I would suggest asking my great granddaughter to give you a tour. However, first I would like to get you and your father settled in one of the guest houses."

After noting his nod, Cologne turned once again to lead the way, and Ranma fell into step behind her, coincidentally right next to the purple-haired girl the Matriarch had just volunteered as a tour guide. So many strange things had happened in the past two days, and since he had spent most of the trip to Nyuucheizu getting to know the Amazons, this was really his first chance to ponder the bizarre nature of recent events. To Ranma, it seemed that there were holes in his memories, or perhaps more precisely, a mental haze covering most of the previous day. When he had woken up on the ground near the Nyannichuan, it was like a great weight had lifted from his mind, and ever since then he knew he had been acting peculiarly. The strangest part, Ranma reflected, was that his strange behavior was only strange from an academic view. The pigtailed boy could remember acting differently in similar situations, but for the life of him, he couldn't remember why. Every action since awakening this morning seemed both right and utterly strange.

On top of that, Ranma could only remember hazy bits from the time he'd fallen in the Spring of Drown Girl and waking up this morning. His mind's eye met with only vague images when he tried to recall what had happened. An image of a huge, dark cat here, an image of a naked girl who looked just like him when he was a girl, a bleak landscape with black clouds. The most disturbing one was an image where he was looking at himself, and he didn't mean in a mirror; Ranma had the distinct impression that he had been looking at himself from another body.

Shaking his head at these musings, the youth turned to his aberrant behavior, especially giving his father a hug. It was strange: all of Ranma's memories told him that the action was utterly uncharacteristic, but his feelings, on the other hand, told him that it was a perfectly reasonable action. And then there was his quick temper, now seen in hindsight. His memories told him that he could easily control his temper and use his feelings as weapons against his opponents…at least, other than his memories of insulting friends, like Ryoga.

Ranma almost ran into Cologne's back when she stopped abruptly, so absorbed was he in his musings, and a moment later his inwardly looking mind finally realized that someone was talking to him. "Sorry, Shampoo," he said, feeling an embarrassed blush spread across his face. "I missed what you said."

The violet-haired girl smiled brightly, telling him that she wasn't insulted by his inattention, and Ranma could feel his own lips turning up. It seemed that Shampoo's cheerful disposition was contagious.

"Shampoo ask," the Amazon repeated in her broken Japanese, "if want tour now. Or Ranma want rest first?"

"Sure, that tour sounds good," Ranma answered. "Just lemme drop my bag inside."

That said, Ranma walked up to the house where Cologne was speaking with Genma, and he caught the tail end of their conversation. "…board, and we will want several hours a day with your son."

"What about instruction?" his father asked in a dubious voice, but Ranma knew Genma well enough to know that the unsure tone was false. "The boy can't afford any stagnation in his training."

"I'm willing to instruct Ranma in some Joketsuzoku techniques," Cologne answered, "but the council must decide to what extent. We will convene tonight to discuss the matter and tell you in the morning."

"Very well, then," said Genma, "I'll give you my final answer tomorrow after you tell me the council's decision."

"Fair enough."

Taking that to be the end of the adults' conversation, Ranma asked, "Is this where were gonna be stayin'?"

Cologne smiled indulgently at him, replying, "Yes. Please make yourselves at home."

"Thanks," Ranma said, nodding to the Elder before walking past her and his father into the house. A brief scan of the interior revealed a clean, if a bit small, living area, and in the back, the pigtailed teen found a small kitchen and a sunken area for bathing. Since there were no other rooms, Ranma assumed that the living area would be where he and Genma would be sleeping, so he dropped his pack there. All in all, it wasn't the best place he'd ever lived, but it was a far cry from the worst.

Walking back outside, Ranma quickly caught Shampoo's eye and motioned her over to him. "Wanna show me around?" he asked with an open grin.

The questioned girl nodded cutely, motioning for the Japanese guest to follow her.

--

Cayenne, along with Basil and eight powerful Musk warriors, found Mint and Lime, both looking battered and bruised, sitting under a tree about a kilometer from Jusenkyo. The two Royal Guards jumped to attention upon seeing the High General, but the black-haired Musk motioned for them to be at ease.

"What happened to you two?" asked the bear descendant. "It looks like you got into a fight with an Amazon elder!"

Mint answered Cayenne in a rush. "We were going to Jusenkyo for water when we saw a girl who wasn't an Amazon and we tried to—"

"Slow down!" bellowed the general, cutting off the wolf descendant's nearly unintelligible account.

Taking a deep breath, Mint started over, making certain to control his instinct to speed up. "Prince Herb ordered us to go to Jusenkyo and retrieve several jars of girl water, but when we got there we found a Japanese girl with red hair eating next to the springs."

"And so you made a complete fool of yourself trying to talk to her, didn't you?" asked Cayenne, though his voice was a bit kinder considering how seldom Musk of Mint's or Lime's age ever saw a woman.

In a small voice, Mint replied, "You don't have to put it quite like that."

"Are you telling me that a woman, and not an Amazon, defeated both of you?"

"Well, that's the strange part," said the Royal Guard. "After getting mad, she changed into a black-haired boy, and he had a ki aura nearly as strong as Prince Herb's! There's not much we could do against that."

Learning that the object of his mission was one of the Japanese who the Pass outpost had reported recently entering Jusendo brought Cayenne up short; usually anyone entering the forgotten valley was weaker than its inhabitants.

"Did the girl change with hot or cold water?" asked the bear descendant, assuming that the outsider had a Jusenkyo curse and wanting to know the natural form of the outsider.

"That's the really strange part," answered Mint. "She changed with no water at all!"

That news caused Cayenne's eyes to widen in disbelief, but his mind quickly assessed the situation in a cold, military fashion. Magic users were not unknown in Jusendo, but neither the occasional sorcerer found in the phoenix nor the odd Joketsuzoku elder dabbling in magic could perform such a feat. Coming to a decision, Cayenne recomposed himself and began to give orders.

"Mint," he said in a tone that caused the younger Musk to come to attention, "you're the fastest here, so I want you to bring this news to the prince as quickly as possible."

Without a word, Mint nodded and took off at a speed that had him out of sight in seconds, and then, Cayenne turned to Lime. "Lime, you will join our party. We are under orders from the prince to find the one you encountered at Jusenkyo and investigate his or her intentions. However, we are to avoid any kind of hostility; it is better to remain neutral or have an ally than to make another enemy."

Lime, not one for words, simply nodded to his superior and fell into rank with the other soldiers. With everyone set to go, the column continued on, and as they continued on to Jusenkyo, the High General of the Musk army mulled over the possibilities.

'The ki was impressive enough,' Cayenne thought, 'but to couple that with magic more powerful than anything we have seen, I will have to very careful how I approach this person.'

His thoughts continued on that track all the way to the accursed training ground, and upon their arrival, Cayenne immediately sought out the guide.

"Good afternoon, honorable warriors," the guide greeted. "It has been some time since such a large group from the Musk Dynasty visited Jusenkyo. How may I assist you?"

Cayenne nodded to the guide, greeting him in kind before asking, "I understand that three Japanese martial artists have recently entered Jusendo and came here, and I am looking for them."

The guide cocked his head to the side, answering, "I helped two Japanese customers, but I don't know of a third. The two that visited were a father and son who were on a martial arts training journey."

"Did they receive curses from Jusenkyo?"

"Yes, the father fell into the Shonmaoniichuan and the son fell into the Nyannichuan."

The second spring caused Cayenne's eyebrows to rise, and he asked, "Do you know what happened to Mint and Lime?"

Nodding, the fat Chinese man answered, "From what I understand, the young man defeated them after they accosted him in female form. It was very strange, honorable warrior. The young man transformed without requiring any water."

Having now corroborated Mint's story, the general asked one more question. "Is he still here," the black-haired Musk asked, "or if they have left, do you know where they went."

"They left for Nyuucheizu just before noon," the guide answered, much to Cayenne's unease. "The Matriarch herself was with them when they left."

Now knowing that his mission would be twice as difficult, the High General thanked the guide, and after the man returned to his cottage, Cayenne turned to his men.

"As you all know," he stated, "we have a treaty with the Joketsuzoku at the moment, so under no circumstances are you to fight an Amazon while we are in their territory. Don't even unsheathe or raise a weapon unless given the order; I won't have a fifteen-year peace end due to someone losing their temper. Basil, you should get over to the Jusenkyo outpost and prepare a report for his highness." After seeing the spidery man nod and head away, Cayenne turned back to the assembled warriors, "Our destination is Nyuucheizu, so let's get moving."

--

Mint arrived at Prince Herb's citadel, deep in the heart of Musk territory, out of breath from his long run from Jusenkyo. Obviously surprised by his dirty, bruised countenance, the guards at the gate for got to salute him as he entered the fortress, but the young Royal Guard ignored the impropriety in favor of completing his mission. Despite being near exhaustion, Mint raced through the entry hall and burst into the throne room, surprisingly empty at this time of day. Not seeing his prince, Mint raced back out of the throne room and stopped the first servant he saw.

"Where is Prince Herb?" asked the breathless warrior, and the servant, obviously recognizing Mint's urgency, told him that his highness was meditating in his private chambers.

Forgetting to even thank the servant, the wolf descendant raced up three flights of stairs and walked into Herb's apartments without even knocking.

"Prince Herb!" he shouted, "I have news from—"

A quiet growl from said prince cut Mint off immediately, and the young Musk warrior finally took a moment to look around the room. In the center, reclining in an ornate, four-footed bathtub full of steaming water, was Herb, formerly reading a piece of parchment. Eyes narrowed in annoyance, he grated, "Don't you knock, idiot?"

Embarrassed, Mint turned away, but that didn't stop him from relaying Cayenne's message. "Lime and I met General Cayenne near Jusenkyo, and he ordered me to get back here as fast as I could to report."

"Well," prompted the cyan-haired prince, "spit it out!"

"The person you ordered Cayenne to find was at Jusenkyo when Lime and I got there, and he…she…whatever. That person defeated us both pretty easily."

"What do you mean 'he, she'?" asked Herb. "Even if they got a gender curse, surely you noted the temperature of the water they used to change."

"That's just it," replied Mint. "The person didn't use any water!"

Mint heard some splashing behind him, and a moment later, the Musk felt a hand on his shoulder, spinning him around to face his prince.

"No water?" Herb demanded, his voice filled with intensity. "Are you sure?"

"Positive, your highness."

Mint could almost see the gears turning in Herb's head as the prince turned and walked away, but the exhaustion Mint had been ignoring in favor of completing his mission would wait no longer. The wolf descendant spied a chair outside of Herb's chambers and collapsed into it, instantly asleep.

--

Whistling a merry tune, Plum, the eight-year-old daughter of the Jusenkyo Guide, walked toward her home from the Joketsuzoku village of Kunicheizu. Sometimes she disliked having to live so far away from her friends and school, the distance being why she often stayed in the village for a few days at a time, but today, the black-haired girl didn't mind too much. For mid-march, it was quite warm, and the afternoon sun was shining brightly in a cloudless sky. The two hour walk from Kunicheizu, the closest of the Amazon villages to the cursed training ground, allowed the little girl to enjoy nature, and listening to birds sing put a spring in her step. Of course, when she neared home, that sound faded in the distance; animals knew better than to come near Jusenkyo.

Plum was almost home when she saw the small, black and yellow shape near the edge of the path, and being a curious child, she walked over to investigate. The object, a piglet with a yellow and black bandanna tied around its neck, was asleep, and the black-haired girl couldn't help but pick up the little animal. The piglet awoke instantly, its surprised squeal startling her, but it quickly calmed down as Plum began to scratch it behind the ears.

Smiling, Plum whispered in Mandarin to the pig, "Shh. Don't worry, little piggy. I'm not going to hurt you."

Cradling the animal in one arm and alternately petting and scratching her newfound pet, the brown-eyed girl continued toward home.

As Plum crested the final rise and looked down on Jusenkyo, she could see her father walking back from the springs toward their house, a large bundle in his hands. Most of the bundle appeared to be a large, canvas backpack, and on top were a bundle of yellow and black cloth and a red bamboo umbrella. Having seen many such bundles in her eight years of life, Plum knew that her father must have had another "customer" fall in a spring.

"Papa!" she called out, racing down the trail toward her home, and her father turned to face her, an indulgent, loving smile on his face. It only took her about a minute to reach him, and she threw her free hand around the guide's waste, hugging him tightly. "It's good to see you, Papa."

"It is good to see you also, daughter," the elder man replied, and after extricating himself from the hug, he continued toward the house, Plum following after.

"Did we have another customer while I was away?" the black-haired girl asked.

"We had two that I met," answered her father, "and judging by these items I found near the Heituenniichuan, we had a third while I was over in Nyuucheizu."

"Wow," exclaimed Plum. "It sounds like I missed all the excitement!"

"Don't worry," said the guide. "I'll tell you all about it when we eat dinner. Speaking of which, what's that under your arm?"

"Huh?" asked the girl, puzzled until she remembered the piglet she had found. "I found it on the path, just a little ways from here."

The Jusenkyo guide nodded sagely, saying, "Well, we had better test it with hot water then."

Suiting actions to words, her father walked over to the stove, and retrieving the water he had been heating for tea, he walked toward his daughter. Plum, knowing exactly what this was all about, set the piglet down on the ground outside her home, and Jusenkyo's caretaker, without preamble, poured a stream of steaming water on the animal.

Having seen it so many times, the Jusenkyo transformation no longer surprised the little girl, but she did blush a bit at seeing the naked boy that replaced her erstwhile pet. Obviously knowing his currently unclothed state, the boy immediately covered himself, embarrassment covering his face before he spoke in Japanese. "Thank you for curing me; I thought I was going to be like that forever."

Her father affected a sorrowful expression, and Plum knew what was coming next. "So sorry, mister customer," he said in broken Japanese, speaking the language about as well as she could. "Is no cure. Cold water change back into piglet. Since curse form piglet, you must be customer what fall in Heituenniichuan, Spring of Drown Black Piglet. Very tragic story of piglet what drown there one thousand two hundred year ago. Now, any what fall in spring become black piglet with cold water. Very tragic story."

While her father was talking, the boy's eyes widened, and after the guide finished, in a tremulous voice, the boy asked, "Is there a cure?"

"So sorry, mister customer. I not know any cure."

The boy's shoulders slumped, a defeated, depressed expression covering his face, and Plum's heart went out to Jusenkyo's latest victim. Placing a hand on his shoulder, she said kindly, "I Plum. What you name?"

Looking up at her with a soulful expression, the dark-haired boy replied, "My name is Ryoga. Hibiki Ryoga."

Plum smiled at him, and then she gestured to the bundle her father had retrieved from the Spring of Drown Black Piglet, saying, "Plum think those yours."

From his sudden blush, Plum divined that Ryoga had just remembered his undressed state, and he asked in a small voice, "Could you turn around so I can get dressed?"

Without answering, Plum turned away, and after about thirty seconds, the Japanese boy said, "Okay, you can look now."

The black-haired girl turned again and saw that Ryoga was now dressed in the clothes her father had retrieved, a yellow tunic with black pants that were tied around each leg from ankle to knee. The dark-haired boy gave Plum something of a wan smile, asking, "Is there anyone around that might know more about my curse?"

Thinking for a moment, Plum replied, "Best people ask is Joketsuzoku. They elders wise."

Nodding, Ryoga continued his interrogatories. "Can you give me directions?"

Plum smiled and nodded. Thinking that the elders in Nyuucheizu would be the best ones to ask, she quickly gave him directions in her broken Japanese, and after thanking her, the boy set off…in exactly the wrong direction. Racing after the boy, she called out, "Wait! You is going wrong way!"

Ryoga laughed nervously, scratching the back of his head in what seemed to be an unconscious motion. "I…um…I have this little…problem…with my sense of direction."

Considering what her father had always told her about the role of the guide at Jusenkyo, that is, to help any customer to the best of her ability, Plum instantly offered, "Plum lead you there."

"Don't go to any trouble on my account."

"Is no trouble," Plum quickly replied. "Is job of guide. Plum guide's daughter. Plum help."

"Well, if it really isn't any trouble…" Ryoga trailed off.

Shaking her head cutely, the black-haired little girl asked Ryoga to wait a moment while she told her father where she was going, and after racing back to the hut, she spoke to her father in Mandarin. "Papa, I'm going to lead that new customer, Ryoga, to Nyuucheizu and stay there for the night before coming home, okay?"

As she knew he would, her father quickly accepted his daughter's proposal, commenting, "You will one day be a very successful guide, daughter. Be safe on your journey."

Bidding her father goodbye, Plum returned to Ryoga, beckoning for him to follow her. It would take them a good three hours to reach Nyuucheizu, and she didn't want to arrive too much after dark.

--

Even with his massive ki reserves, flying was an exhausting way to use it, and if he were any less worried about the implications of a magic user able to perform such a powerful feat as a polymorph spell, Herb probably wouldn't have bothered. As it was, though, the cyan-haired prince had come to the conclusion that such a powerful and unknown quantity as the Japanese, considering the ki levels he had felt and the magical information, required his personal attention. He was certain that that was the reason Cayenne had sent Mint back to the citadel; the general had known that such developments would be of great interest to him.

When Herb did not find Cayenne at Jusenkyo, the dragon-descended prince headed immediately to the Musk outpost, and there, Basil updated him on the situation. After leaving the outpost, Herb flew towards Nyuucheizu, hoping to catch up with Cayenne before he arrived at the Joketsuzoku seat of power. 'So,' the fifteen-year-old prince thought as he flew, 'the ki I felt earlier belongs to a boy cursed by the Nyannichuan, but there has to be more to it than that. So far, every account says that he can change without water.'

Only about a kilometer from Nyuucheizu, Herb finally spotted Cayenne's team, and without warning he landed in front of them. Half of the warriors had fallen into defensive crouches when he startled them, but once they saw whom he was, all of them except Cayenne and Lime knelt.

"Welcome, your highness," the high general intoned formally, but the dragon descendant waved it away.

"I got Mint's report," Herb said in a clipped tone. "Do you have any new information?"

"If you received Basil's report, then no," replied the bear descendant. "He heard everything that the guide said."

Nodding, Herb spoke again. "Alright then, I guess we are heading for Nyuucheizu then."

Suddenly, a female voice spoke from above. "And why would a large group of Musk warriors be going to the center of Joketsuzoku power?"

A bit startled by the voice, Herb looked up, and in the tree branches above them, fifteen Amazons stood with weapons ready. Their leader spoke again, saying, "Your being this close to an Amazon village without announcing yourselves comes near to violating our treaty, so please, Prince Herb, explain yourself."

Deciding that hiding their reason for coming would be pointless, Herb replied, "Earlier today, I felt an immense source of ki coming from Jusenkyo, so I sent warriors to investigate. It seems that your Matriarch personally led them away from the training ground, so I traveled here to treat with her and investigate this mysterious Japanese."

Apparently what he said satisfied the squad leader, because a moment later the Joketsuzoku had lowered their weapons, the tension leaving all the assembled warriors, Musk and Amazon alike. The leader dropped down from her perch and approached, saying, "Very well, then. We will escort you to Nyuucheizu to meet with the Matriarch."

"Thank you," replied the dragon descendant. "That is very much appreciated."

The Joketsuzoku fell in around the Musk column, and side-by-side, Herb and the squad leader lead the mixed group of warriors toward Nyuucheizu.

--

It was early evening when Shampoo finally concluded her tour of the village, her pigtailed companion walking beside her. She had shown him all the high points: a quick look into the council chamber from the door, a look at the library, the challenge log outside the fortress, and she finished her tour outside the house she shared with her great grandmother. Ranma had made all the proper responses to each of the sights, making appreciative comments about each locale, and he had occasionally asked questions about this or that. The red-eyed girl had been thankful when Ranma mentioned that he understood Mandarin passably, though he said he did speak it very well, and she had been able to speak more eloquently than her Japanese would allow. It did, however, make for an interesting conversation, because like him, she understood Japanese better than she spoke it. It certainly drew a few odd looks when anyone noticed that she was speaking in Mandarin and he in Japanese, but that didn't bother her, especially since she got to spend the afternoon with one of the handsomest males she had ever seen.

"And this is my house, Ranma," Shampoo narrated, presenting the final stop on his tour, a house right across the square from the fortress. Leading him around to the sparring yard in back, she continued. "You are a martial artist, are you not?" Seeing him nod, she asked, "Would you like to spar with me? I am the best fighter of my generation in this village."

Ranma stood silent for a moment, considering his answer, and then, suddenly, he shifted into his female form before answering, "Sure, why not."

Shampoo blink-blinked her purple-red eyes at the spontaneous transformation from handsome boy to cute girl, and she couldn't help but ask, "Why did you change?"

Now it was Ranma's turn to blink-blink, and after looking down as though she hadn't even noticed her gender changing, the redhead shrugged, saying, "Not a clue."

Shampoo shrugged along with her now-female companion, and after a moment of puzzled contemplation, she motioned Ranma into the training yard, asking, "Do you wish to spar with or without weapons?"

Smiling, Ranma answered, "I'll go without, but you can use them if you wanna."

Shampoo didn't want to have an unfair advantage in their first spar, though Ranma actually laughed about a weapon being an advantage, and dropped into a stance. The pigtailed girl just stood there, and the purple-haired Joketsuzoku asked, "Are you ready?"

Still smiling brightly, Ranma chirped back, "Yeap!"

Shrugging at the other girl's non-stance, Shampoo leapt to the attack, opting to test her new friend's defenses with a few quick jabs at her chest and face. Never losing her smile, the redhead dodged each of the strikes, and the Amazon ratcheted her estimation of Ranma's skill up a few notches as she jumped back from her first attack.

Deciding she would need to be a bit more serious if she intended to win this spar, Shampoo rushed back in, leading off with a roundhouse that lead into a low sweep. Ranma just leaned back a little to avoid the roundhouse, and her quick leap immediately thereafter avoided the sweep. Unfortunately for Shampoo, the leap also ended the Japanese martial artist's dodging routine, and the Amazon had to shoulder-roll away to barely avoid the redhead's follow-up drop kick.

Shampoo expected Ranma to press the attack, but she was surprised to see the pigtailed girl just standing there, the same cute smile that had been on her face from the beginning still on her face. Knowing that Ranma was at least at her skill level, Shampoo decided to stop holding back, and she renewed her charge at the pigtailed teen moving at full speed. This time, the redhead was unable to dodge her first punch, being forced to block it, and finally, the purple-haired girl could see in Ranma's eyes that the girl would take the spar seriously. This, of course, only fueled her warrior's spirit even more, and she followed up her attack with a flurry of blows that nearly reach Amaguriken speeds.

Amazingly, at least to Shampoo, Ranma kept up with her blows, dodging, blocking, and occasionally throwing a blow back at her, and each girl managed a few clean strikes on the other. At some mutual, unknowable signal, Ranma and Shampoo jumped back from the spar, both breathing hard. By the violet-haired combatant's estimation, they had been fighting at those speeds for nearly two minutes, and that was tiring work indeed.

Just before Shampoo finished catching her breath, Ranma raced forward again, forcing the Joketsuzoku teen to fight before she was fully prepared. To Shampoo's senses, Ranma had taken the fight up yet another notch, the pigtailed girl's aquamarine aura glowing brightly in her eyes and shimmering thinly around her form, and Shampoo felt a little fear. It had only been that morning when she had witnessed Ranma fight full out against her father, and even if this was just a spar, the Amazon didn't yet know how to harness her ki to the degree that the Saotomes had demonstrated at Jusenkyo.

Suddenly, Ranma's aura flashed, and Shampoo found herself flying through the air, propelled by an unbelievably powerful axe kick. The last thing she saw before hitting the side of her house and blacking out was the wrinkled visage of her great grandmother watching the spar from the gate into the yard.

--

After catching her breath from that rapid punching exchange, Ranma had gained a good deal of respect for her new sparring partner: it took a very talented fighter to get so many good hits on her. Now have something of a measure of Shampoo's skill, Ranma decided to ramp up the fight another notch or two, channeling ki into her limbs as she charged the purple-haired Amazon. Racing forward with even greater speed, Ranma unleashed an axe kick, intending it to be feint to open a hole in Shampoo's guard, but something utterly unexpected happened. Ranma lost her concentration briefly, and instead of the ki receding from her leg, it surged, causing the kick to be far more powerful than she had anticipated. The pigtailed girl's foot lanced through Shampoo's guard and connected hard with her chin, the purple-haired fighter launching into the air like a rocket. Before Ranma could do much more than lower her leg, Shampoo slammed into the side of her house, sliding to the ground in an unconscious heap.

Heart leaping into her throat, Ranma rushed to the side of her new friend, quickly checking the Joketsuzoku's vitals, and the pigtailed teen sighed in relief after she checked the girl's pulse, finding it strong and regular. Before Ranma could go further in her first aid examination, a small, wrinkled hand landed on her shoulder.

"She'll be fine, Ranma," Cologne assured her in Japanese. "She's take blows far harder than that in training before. Congratulations, by the way, on your victory. However, judging by your reaction, you weren't expecting your kick to be that strong."

Shaking her head wordlessly, Ranma waited for the Joketsuzoku Matriarch to continue.

"It appears to me that you have far more ki at your disposal than you were expecting," lectured Cologne. "Part of the reason I want you to stay is to figure out why your Jusenkyo curse is different than any other we've ever heard of, and in that investigation, we might be able to find out why you have so much more ki than you should, even given your training. In addition, since you do have so much ki, you must learn to control it, or you will be a danger to others."

Knowing she was right, Ranma nodded, asking, "Does that mean that you have permission to train me?"

Cologne smiled knowingly, replying, "Indeed, Ranma. I just came from the council chambers to tell you."

A low groan interrupted the pigtailed girl's next statement, and she was immediately kneeling beside Shampoo. Even knowing the girl was all right didn't abate Ranma's concern for her new friend, and she immediately exclaimed, "I'm so sorry about that, Shampoo! I didn't mean to kick you that hard!"

The girl herself shook her head a couple of times as she blinked her eyes, apparently trying to clear her head. Ranma knew, from past experience, that being knocked out by a blow to the head usually left a person disoriented, so the redhead let Shampoo come back to herself.

A moment later, the purple-haired girl looked up, and seeing Ranma and Cologne, she gazed into the former's eyes, slowly approaching. Ranma, for her part, was frozen in place by the Amazon's stare, but when the other girl was close enough that Ranma could feel Shampoo's breath on her lips, Cologne barked out, "Shampoo, they are official guests now."

The sound of the elder's voice seemed to break the trance, and Ranma turned away from her new friend, blushing. Shampoo seemed a bit angry, speaking in an upset tone. "But Great Grandmother! He just—"

Cologne cut her off, and in a tone that brooked no opposition, she said, "You know the law, Shampoo, and they have been declared guests by the council."

Ranma watched as Shampoo slumped in defeat, chalking the entire episode up to Joketsuzoku eccentricities. Before anyone present could speak again, however, another Amazon raced into the yard, whispering something in the Elder's ear that caused the old woman's eyes to widen fractionally. Without a word, Cologne jumped onto her staff and hopped after the messenger, and that is when Ranma felt it: several beings were approaching with abnormally high amounts of ki. Without him realizing it, Ranma's form became male once again, and he and Shampoo followed after the Matriarch.

As the two young fighters reached the square, Ranma saw a large group of warriors, at least numbering twenty five, entering the village by the same gate through which he himself had entered the village earlier that day. The warriors around the outside of the formation were Joketsuzoku warriors, but in the middle, Ranma saw a group of ten Musk, including one of the unfortunate duo he had encountered at Jusenkyo. Luckily, his anger about that had fully abated.

Ranma was about to move forward to get a better view when a hand on his shoulder halted his movement, and he turned his head to look questioningly at the owner of that hand, Shampoo.

"That is an official envoy from the Musk Dynasty, Ranma," she whispered to him. "It is very unusual to see them in the village."

While she was speaking, Ranma turned back to the action, and as he watched, the Amazon guard around the Musk formation separated. A single man from that group approached Cologne, who was joined by six other equally wizened women. Ranma was too far away to hear what they were saying, but the small bows exchanged between the cyan-haired man and the elders, ones meant for the meeting of equals, told him that who ever the man was, he was important.

After trading a few words with Cologne, Ranma was surprised to see the ancient elder point in his direction, and the Musk nodded and turned, striding purposefully toward the pigtailed boy. As he approached, Ranma could feel the immense ki within the newcomer, and he readied himself for a fight. However, the Musk surprised him, stopping three meters from him and offering him the same small, polite bow he had offered the elders. Automatically, Ranma returned the gesture, and the man spoke.

"I am Herb, prince of the Musk Dynasty."

--

Author's Notes:

I live again! Finally and at last, I've overcome both writer's block and a general lack of time, and after almost two years (and nearly four for this particular story), I'm finally updating one of my stories. On the bright side, at least I am back, right?

It's really odd that this is the first update I've managed to complete since actually getting back to writing, especially considering the problems I outlined in the author's notes of the rewrite of the last chapter. Just to reiterate, unless I can get some inspiration for this story (an ultimate goal would be a good start), then it's just not going to get much attention. The story just doesn't have an outline to speak of, and the original goal of the story is now part of another one of my fics, where I think it fits better. That said, even the title is no longer relevant to the story, so any suggestions from you on a new title would be greatly appreciated. Using the foreshadowing in this chapter, I can probably write another chapter, and going by that logic, I could probably continue ad infinitum. Unfortunately, that would probably create a meandering storyline that has no real focus, and that just isn't my style.

On a side note, for those of you out there mad at me for updating this story before Negawarrior, I have twelve pages of the next part of Negawarrior written, and it is continuing to grow apace. I know you've been patient, but I'm still working on limited time here. C'mon, you all know how long those parts end up, and that one is only about a third done as is.

In any case, I hope everyone enjoys this new update, and I'll try to keep it up. Since this is my first update in quite a while, I hope it lives up to my earlier work. Later all.


End file.
